OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


LIBRARY 
8CHOOP- 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

CELEBRATION 


OF    THE 


ik  3fikari)  Association 


OF    THE 


CITY    OF^NEW-YORK, 

AT    THE 

ACADEMY  OF  Music,  Nov.  Qth,  1870. 

AND  THE 

Fifth    Anniversary    Celebration 


EX-OFFICERS'    UNION, 

AT 

DELMONICO'S,  Nov.  loth,  1870. 


.  OO  Y, 


NEW- YORK: 

GEORGE  F.  NESBITT  &  CO.,  PRINTERS  AND  STATIONERS, 
Corner  of  Pearl  and  Pine  Streets. 

1871. 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

\ 

CELEBRATION 


OF    THE 


lf  fikarg 


OF    THE 


CITY   OF    NEW-YORK, 


AT    THE 


ACADEMY  OF  Music,  Nov.  gth,  1870. 

AND  THE 

Fifth    Anniversary    Celebration 


OF    THE 


EX-OFFICERS'    UNION, 

AT 

DELMONICO'S,  Nov.  loth,  1870. 


NEW-YORK: 

GEORGE  F.  NESBITT  &  CO.,  PRINTERS  AND  STATIONERS, 
Corner  of  Pearl  and  Pine  Streets. 

1871. 


Sc-V)00\ 


'residents  of  the  Association 


FROM    ITS    ORGANIZATION. 


1 820-23 . .  L  UCIUS  B  ULL. 
1823-24 . .  CORNELIUS  SA  VA  GE. 
1824-26.. BENJAMIN  I.  SEWARD. 
1827-31.. R.  B.  BROWN. 
1S32-34..JOHN  W.  STEBBINS. 
1834-35.. R.  R.  BOYD. 
1836-37.. CHARLES  ROLFE. 

1838 EDMUND  COFFIN. 

1839 JOHN  S.  WINTHROP. 

1839 ELIJAH  WARD. 

1840 A  UG  USTUS  E.  SILLIMAN. 

1841 HECTOR  MORISON, 

1842 JOHN  T.  ROLLINS. 

1843 LE  WIS  McMULLEN. 

1 843 RICHARD  B  URLE  W. 

1844-45..  CHARLES  E.  MILNOR. 
1 846-47.. CORNELIUS  L.  EVERETT. 

1848 THOMAS  W.  GROSER. 

1849 ISAAC  H.  BAILEY. 

1 850 THOMAS  J.  BA  YA  UD. 

1 869-70..  M. 


1851 HENRY  A.  OAKLEY. 

1852 GEORGE  PECKHAM. 

1853 WILLARD  L.  FELT. 

1854 DANIEL  F.  APPLETON. 

1855 D.  REYNOLDS  BUDD. 

1855-56.. GEORGE  C.  WOOD. 
1856-57..  JOHN  CRERAR. 
1857-58.. ROWLAND  H.  TIMPfiON. 
If 51-58.. ALEXANDER  P.  FISKE. 
1858-59.. E.  BOUDINOT  SERVOSS. 
1 859-60.. RICHARD  A.  BACHIA. 
1860-61 . .  CHAS.  E.  XING  SHERMAN. 
1861-62..  CHARLES  F.  ALLEN. 
}  862-63 . .  CHARLES  OSGOOD. 
18fi3-64..  CHARLES  H.  SWORDS. 
1864-65.. THEODORE  H.  VULTEE. 
1865-66.. ROBERT  WALKER  IRWIN. 
1866-67.. AARON  C.  ALLEN. 
1867-68.. ALEXANDER  RHIND. 
1 868-69..  CHARLES  F.  ALLEN. 
C.  D.  BORDEN. 


A/ 


Officers  add  Members  of  the  Board  of  Direction 

AND 

OFFICERS 

OP  ^THE 

MERCANTILE  LIBRARY  ASSOGIATIDH  FOR  1870-71. 


(President, 

M.   C.  D.  BORDEN. 

Vice-  (President, 

W.  T.  PEOPLES. 

Corresponding  Secretary,  Recording  Secretary, 

EDWARD  HASLEB.  SAMUEL  PUTNAM. 

treasurer, 

GEORGE  B.  MILLS. 

Directors  of  the  First  Class,  to  hold  office  for  One  Tear, 

M.  C.  D.  BORDEN,  N.  H.  MYRICK, 

EDWARD  HASLER,  GEO.  B.  MILLS. 

Directors  of  the  Second  Class,  to  hold  office  for  (Two  Years, 

W.  T.  PEOPLES,  A.  W.  SHERMAN, 

SAMUEL  PUTNAM,  J.  C.  CURRIE. 

Qirectors  of  the  QLhird  Class,  to  hold  office  for  <lhree  Tears, 

CHARLES  R  ALLEN,  ASHER  S.  MILLS, 

W.  A.  SHERMAN,  JNO.  NICKINSON. 

"Librarian, 

A.   M.   PALMER. 

Assistant  Librarian, 

GEORGE    COOPE. 


Trustees  of  the  Clinton  Hall  Association. 


(President, 

WILSON  G.  HUNT. 

t  ;  \'  .'Secretary,  (Treasurer, 

HUGH  N.  CAMP.  EDMUND  COFFIN. 

trustees, . 

THOMAS  H.  FAILE,      WILLIAM  E.  DODGE, 
JOHN  K.  MYERS,          ISAAC  H.  BAILEY. 


BOARD   OF   DIRECTORS 


OF  THE 


PFFICERS'    UNION,     FOR    1870 


PRESIDENT,  -  HUGH  N.  CAMP. 

VICE-PRESIDENT,  -    COKNELIUS  L.  EVERITT, 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY,    -       M.  C.  D.  BORDEN. 
RECORDING  SECRETARY,  S.  HASTINGS  GRANT. 

WILLARD  L.  FELT. 


DIRECTORS, 

HENRY  A.  OAKLEY,        PETER  VOORHIES, 
JOHN  J.  HERRICK,  CHARLES  F.  ALLEN, 

AMOS  F.  ENO,  A.  G.  AGNEW, 

SEYMOUR  A.  BUNCE. 


FIFTIETH 

ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION. 


THE  Fiftieth.  Anniversary  of  the  organization  of  the  Mer 
cantile  Library  Association  of  the  City  of  New-York,  was 
celebrated  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  on  the  evening  of 
Wednesday,  November  9th,  1870.  A  very  large  and  bril 
liant  audience  was  in  attendance.  The  President  of  the 
Association,  Mr.  M.  C.  D.  Borden,  occupied  the  chair ;  Wil 
son  Gr.  Hunt,  Esq.,  David  Dudley  Field,  Esq.,  Hon.  A. 
Oakey  Hall,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Esq.,  Hon.  Wm.  E. 
Dodge,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Esq.,  Eev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.D.,  Eev. 
Stephen  H.  Tyng,  D.D.,  Edmund  Coffin,  Esq.,  Thomas  H. 
Faile,  Esq.,  Hon.  John  Cochrane,  and  many  other  prominent 
gentlemen  occupied  seats  upon  the  stage.  The  music  was 
furnished  by  Grafulla's  Seventh  Regiment  Band.  The  exer 
cises  were  opened  with  prayer  by  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng} 
D.D. ;  and  the  President  then  delivered  the  following 

OPENING   ADDRESS: 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :— 

In  a  little  room  in  Wall  Street,  just  fifty  years  ago  to 
night,  there  met  together  a  small  company  of  men,  identified 
as  merchants'  clerks.  Assembled  at  the  call  of  a  single  gen 
tleman,  without  any  well-defined  plan  and  with  no  concep 
tion  of  an  enterprise  that  should  outlive  themselves,  this 
little  body  of  clerks,  then  and  there,  gave  form  to  a  project 
which  appears  to-day  as  the  most  extensive  and  most  useful 
existing  institution  of  its  kind.  On  the  12th  of  February 


8  MEKCANTILE  LIBRARY. 

following,  in  an  tipper  room  of  the  building  known  as  49 
Fulton  Street,  our  Association  was  formally  introduced  to 
existence  by  the  deposit  for  circulation  of  seven  hundred 
volumes,  with  a  total  membership  of  150  subscribers.  Such 
was  our  birth  as  an  Association.  The  first  few  years  of  life 
were  uneventful,  save  in  the  obstacles  and  difficulties  which 
inevitably  attach  to  the  earlier  stages  of  all  human  under 
takings,  and  which,  in  our  experience,  seemed  to  prevail  in 
exceptional  force. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  five  years  introductory  to  our  career 
were  in  no  proper  sense  a  question  of  progress.  They  were 
simply  and  singly  a  hardly  contested  struggle  for  existence. 
Fortunately  for  us — more  happily  for  society — the  first  and 
greatest  crisis  was  safely  passed  ;  the  period  of  convalescence 
began  to  assert  itself,  and  in  1826,  in  the  month  of  June,  the 
Library  was  moved  to  more  eligible  and  commodious  rooms, 
in  the  building  then  owned  and  occupied  by  the  Harper 
Bros.,  in  Cliff  Street.  Here  a  new  feature  was  added  in 
the  form  of  a  Eeading  Room,  unpretentious  enough  with  its 
complement  of  four  weekly  papers  and  seven  magazines  ; 
but,  nevertheless,  a  valued  and  valuable  accession.  From 
this  date— 182 6— really  begins  the  progress  of  the  organiza 
tion.  Books  accumulate  more  certainly  ;  papers  and  maga 
zines  increase  more  sensibly ;  members,  the  support  and 
sustenance  of  the  enterprise,  multiply  with  encouraging 
rapidity,  and  a  few  years  later  on,  the  merchants  of  New- 
York  contribute  with  a  generous  willingness  to  place  the 
Library  in  a  building  of  its  own.  This  was  the  first  Clinton 
Hall,  completed  and  formally  dedicated  to  our  service  in 
November  of  1830  ;  built  for  us  ;  exclusively  appropriated 
to  our  use ;  but  providently  held  in  trust  by  a  Board  of 
Trustees,  composed  of  older  and  more  experienced  men, 
elected  by  and  representing  the  subscribers  to  the  building  ; 
a  duly  organized  body  under  the  name  of  the  Clinton  Hall 
Association.  This  relation  of  the  two  Associations,  which 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVEKSARY.  9 

differ  after  all  in  name  alone  and  are  identical  in  purpose, 
exists  to  the  present  day,  and  will  continue  for  all  time  in 
the  interests  of  the  beneficent  cause  they  together  represent. 
Firmly  established  now  and  steadily  progressive,  we  pass  on 
to  the  next  and  grandest  move  of  all,  in  1850,  to  the  Clinton 
Hall  of  to-day,  far  from  its  original  site,  with  a  membership 
of  more  than  3,000  merchants'  clerks,  and  a  store  of  not  less 
than  30,000  books. 

Such,  very  briefly,  was  the  Mercantile  Library  twenty 
years  ago.  Do  you  ask  what  it  is  to-day  ?  It  has  the  same 
house,  which  it  has  outgrown ;  it  has  the  same  garments, 
which  it  has  outworn  ;  it  is  the  assured  and  resistless  growth 
supplanting  the  small  and  uncertain  seed  ;  it  holds  a  capital 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  books,  to  which  it  is 
adding  at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent,  a  year ;  it  has  a  reading 
room  which  affords  to  its  patrons,  access  at  will,  to  more 
than  four  hundred  newspapers  and  magazines ;  its  roll  of 
members  stretches  over  a  list  of  no  less  than  eleven  thou 
sand  names,  for  whose  benefit  it  boasts  an  income  of  sixty 
thousand  dollars  a  year ;  it  scatters  among  its  readers  an 
average  of  eight  hundred  volumes  a  day  ;  it  circulates  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  books  a  year ;  it  gives  more  for 
less  than  any  Library  in  the  world  ;  it  is  the  community's 
friend — one  of  those  silent  but  irresistible  agencies  by  which 
society  is  informed  and  refined ;  it  is  the  city's  university. 
Give  it  all  honor  for  the  good  it  has  done,  and  your  honest 
God-speed  for  the  good  it  has  yet  to  do.  [Applause.]  But 
I  try  your  patience  too  far. 

You  remember  that  Mr.  Calhoun  on  one  occasion  so  far 
abused  his  privilege  of  discussion  as  to  provoke  from  Mr. 
Webster  a  most  sharp  and  cutting  retort — "  The  honorable 
member  has  made  an  expedition  into  regions  as  remote 
from  the  subject  of  this  debate  as  the  orb  of  Jupiter  from 
that  of  our  earth."  And  I  am  reminded  that  I  am  as  widely 
distant  from  the  object  that  induces  your  presence  as  my 


10  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY. 

indifferent  utterance  from  the  rich  entertainment  of  eloquence 
and  speech  to  which  I  am  presently  to  invite  you. 

As  the  result  of  circumstances,  over  which  we  unfortu 
nately  have  no  control,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  vary 
somewhat  the  promised  programme  of  the  evening,  and  I 
now  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  a  gentleman 
whose  name  is  known  and  honored  by  every  American 
audience,  as  his  influence  is  daily  felt  by  every  citizen  of 
the  Metropolis  who  reads,  the  Nestor  of  the  American  Press, 
Mr.  Wm.  Cullen  Bryant.  [Long- continued  applause.] 

Address  of   WILLIAM  CULLEN   BRYANT. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :— 

I  esteem  myself  highly  fortunate  in  being  able  to  con 
gratulate  the  members  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association 
on  having  reached  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  their  life. 
Forty-five  years  ago.  when  I  first  came  to  live  in  the  City  of 
New -York,  that  Institution  was  in  the  early  infancy  of 
which  your  President  has  just  given  an  interesting  account 
I  remember,  very  well,  that  the  public-spirited  young  gen 
tlemen  by  whom  it  was  founded,  expected  much  from  it  in 
the  future.  They  hoped,  and  the  hope  was  not  vain,  that 
it  would  greatly  aid  in  forming  the  minds  of  the  younger 
part  of  the  mercantile  class  to  liberal  tastes  and  to  generous 
views  of  their  duty  to  their  country  and  to  mankind,  and 
that  it  would  be  in  some  measure  a  safeguard  against  the 
temptations  which  beset  young  men  in  a  populous  city. 
Those  who  then  sat  by  its  cradle,  if  they  survive,  are  now 
aged  men  ;  those  whose  birth  was  coeval  with  its  origin  are 
men  of  mature  age,  who  have  passed  the  zenith  of  life  ;  the 
books  which  were  collected  in  its  first  year,  to  form  the  be 
ginning  of  what  is  now  a  flourishing  library,  belong  to  the 
literature  of  a  past  generation.  Yet,  in  founding  this  In 
stitution,  the  men  of  that  day  left  a  noble  legacy  to  future 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY.  11 

times.  While  other  institutions  have  risen  and  fallen,  it 
has  continued  to  grow  and  to  extend  its  beneficial  influences 
with  the  growth  of  our  city ;  not,  indeed,  in  the  same  pro 
portion,  but  steadily  and  with  a  sure  advance,  till  now  its 
prosperity  and  duration  seem  almost  beyond  the  reach  of 
accident.  I  learn  that  there  is  no  Library  in  the  country 
which  increases  so  fast  as  that  which  belongs  to  this  Asso-. 
ciation,  and  that  within  the  last  ten  years  it  has  more  than 
doubled  the  number  of  its  volumes.  If  it  proceeds  at  this 
rate  it  will  eventually  have  a  library  which  will  command 
the  admiration  of  the  world  and  become  the  pride  of  our 
country.  [Applause.] 

In  the  years  yet  to  come,  far  in  the  depths  of  the  future, 
the  young  men  who  search  among  the  old  books  of  the 
library  will  say  to  each  other :  u  See  with  what  reading  our 
ancestors  entertained  themselves  many  centuries  since,  and 
how  the  language  has  changed  since  that  time !  We  can 
laugh  yet  at  the  humor  of  Irving,  in  spite  of  the  antiquated 
diction.  What  a  fiery  spirit  animates  the  quaint  sentences  of 
the  old  novelist  Cooper !  In  these  verses  of  Longfellow  we 
still  perceive  the  sweetness  of  the  numbers  and  the  pathos  of 
the  thoughts,  and  wonder  not  that  the  maidens  of  that  dis 
tant  age  wept  over  the  pages  of  Evangeline.  Here,1'  they 
will  add,  "  are  the  scientific  works  of  that  distant  age. 
Clever  men  were  these  ancestors  of  ours  ;  diligent  inquirers  ; 
fortunate  discoverers  of  scientific  truth,  but  how  far  in  its 
attainment  below  the  height  which  we  have  since  reached  !  " 

What  I  have  just  now  imagined,  supposes  our  flourishing 
library  to  escape  destruction  by  war  and  by  casual  fire. 
Ah,  my  friends,  never  may  the  fate  of  unhappy  Strasburg 
be  ours !  to  lie  for  weeks  under  a  hail  storm  of  iron  and  a 
rain  of  fire,  showered  from  the  engines  of  destruction, 
which  Milton  properly  makes  the  guilty  invention  of  the 
sinning  angels,  and  doomed  to  see  her  library,  rich  with  the 
priceless  treasures  of  past  centuries,  suddenly  turned  to 


12  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

ashes.  But  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  our  library,  the 
Association  itself  is  not  so  easily  destroyed.  If  the  Library 
perish,  the  same  spirit  which  founded  it  first,  will  restore  it 
so  far  as  restoration  is  possible.  The  Association,  I  venture 
to  predict,  will  subsist  till  this  great  mart  of  commerce  shall 
be  a  mart  no  longer  ;  till  the  mercantile  class  shall  have  dis 
appeared  from  the  spot  where  it  stands,  and  New- York  shall 
have  dwindled  to  a  fishing  town. 

But  will  this  ever  be  ?  Will  our  great  city  share  the  fate 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  whose  merchants  were  princes,  and 
which  are  now  but  Arab  villages,  with  a  few  caiques  and 
here  and  there  a  felucca  moored  in  their  clear  but  shallow 
waters,  choked  with  the  ruins  of  palaces  ?  Will  she  become 
like  Carthage,  once  mistress  of  flourishing  colonies,  but  now 
a  desert ;  like  Corinth,  once  the  seat  of  a  vast  commerce — 
opulent,  luxurious,  magnificent  Corinth — now  a  mere 
cluster  of  houses  overlooked  by  a  dismantled  and  moulder 
ing  citadel  ? 

Or,  to  come  down  to  later  times,  will  this  city  decay  like 
Amsterdam,  the  mother  of  New- York,  and  once  the  centre 
of  the  world's  commerce?  Or  like  Genoa,  surnamed  the 
proud,  and  Venice,  once  the  mistress  of  the  Adriatic — cities 
which  after  having  successively  wielded  the  commerce  of 
the  East,  and  made  Italian  the  language  of  commerce  in  all 
the  ports  of  the  Levant,  have  long  since  ceased  to  hold  a 
place  among  the  great  marts  of  the  world  ? 

I  answer  that  none  of  these  cities  had  the  same  firm  and 
durable  basis  of  commercial  prosperity  as  our  New- York. 
It  was  their  enterprise  in  opening  channels  of  trade ;  it  was 
their  conquests  and  colonies  which  gave  them  their  temporary 
prosperity.  They  had  no  broad,  well  peopled  region  around 
them,  under  the  same  government  with  themselves,  whose 
superabundant  products  it  was  their  office  to  exchange  with 
other  countries.  Their  prosperity  was  built  on  narrow 
foundations,  and  it  fell.  Our  circumstances  are  different 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY.  13 

Here  is  a  republic  of  vast  extent,  stretching  from  the  sea 
which  bathes  the  western  coast  of  Europe  to  that  which 
washes  the  eastern  shore  of  Asia — a  region  of  fertile  plains, 
rich  valleys,  noble  forests,  mountains  big  with  mines,  water 
courses  whose  sands  are  gold,  mighty  rivers,  railways  going 
forth  from  our  great  cities  to  every  point  of  the  compass, 
and  covering  an  immense  territory  with  their  intersections, 
and  not  a  hindrance  to  commerce  between  city  and  city  or 
between  sea  and  sea,  or  on  our  great  rivers,  or  on  the  borders 
of  the  States  forming  our  confederation.  This  mighty  re 
gion,  alive  with  an  energetic  population,  is  flanked  with 
seaports,  through  which  the  products  sent  by  us  to  other 
countries  must  pass,  and  through  which  the  merchandise 
sent  us  in  exchange  must  be  received.  They  are  therefore 
an  indispensable  part  of  our  national  economy.  Their 
prosperity  is  necessary,  inevitable,  and  will  endure  while 
our  political  institution  remains  as  it  now  is.  [Applause.] 

But  if  it  should  come  to  pass  that  this  fortunate  order  of 
things  is  broken  up,  if  this  great  republic  should  fall  to 
pieces  and  become  divided  into  a  group  of  independent 
commonwealths,  and  if  an  illiberal  legislation  should  ob 
struct  the  channels  of  trade  now  so  fortunately  open  over 
all  our  vast  territory,  there  are  none  of  our  marts  of  ex 
change  for  whose  future  prosperity  I  could  answer.  Some 
would  fall  into  a  slow  decay,  some  pass  into  a  rapid  decline ; 
some  would  become  like  Ascalon  on  the  coast  of  Palestine, 
once  a  harbor  crowded  with  shipping,  but  when  I  saw  it,  a 
desolate  spot,  where  the  sea-sand  had  drifted  upon  the 
foundations  of  temples  and  palaces,  invaded  the  harvest 
fields,  and  moving  before  the  wind,  had  entered  the  olive 
groves  and  piled  itself  among  them  to  the  tops  of  the  trees. 

Our  security  from  such  unhappy  results  will,  in  a  good 
degree,  lie  in  such  institutions  as  this,  and  in  other  means 
of  a  like  character,  the  object  of  which  is  to  diffuse  knowl 
edge,  to  open  men's  eyes  to  their  true  interests,  and  accustom 


14  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

them  to  large  and  generous  views  of  the  relations  of  com 
munities  to  each  other  and  to  the  world  at  large.  For  this 
reason  let  us  hope  for  the  permanent  and  increasing  pros 
perity  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association.  [Great  ap 
plause.] 

The  President — The  gentleman  whose  name  is  first  on 
the  programme  in  your  hands,  we  had  confidently  expected 
to  be  here,  and  not  until  yesterday,  at  a  late  hour,  did  we 
receive  any  indication  to  the  contrary.  Then  came  a  tele 
gram  announcing  the  impossibility  of  his  coming,  over  the 
signature  of  the  Hon.  Eoscoe  Conkling. 

Mr.  Maretzek,  who  perhaps,  has  disappointed  a  New- 
York  audience  more  frequently  than  any  other  individual, 
has  had  the  happy  faculty  of  acquitting  himself  by  pleading 
the  illness  of  the  favorite  absentee,  invariably  fortifying  his 
position  by  the  strong  armor  of  professional  assertion  and 
doctor's  certificate.  While  we  have  no  positive  informa 
tion  of  the  fact,  we  are  nevertheless  justified  in  supposing 
that  no  lesser  reason  can  excuse  an  absence  so  inopportune ; 
and,  without  at  this  particular  time,  attempting  to  give  a 
name  to  the  disease,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Hon.  Senator  is  seriously  sick.  [Laughter  and  great  ap 
plause.] 

The  epidemic,  however,  is  wide  spread.  The  Governor 
of  your  Commonwealth,  no  longer  ago  than  on  Monday 
morning,  gave  me  in  person  the  assurance  of  his  presence 
here  to-night,  and  I  hold  in  my  hand  unimpeachable  evi 
dence  of  his  good  will  and  faith  in  giving  the  promise.  I 
have  also  conclusive  evidence  for  supposing  that  the  Gover 
nor  has  been  really  ill,  far  too  unwell  to  risk  the  exposure 
that  would  necessarily  attach  to  his  coming  out  on  a  night 
to  be  remembered  for  the  violence  of  its  storm.  I  crave 
the  pardon  of  His  Excellency  for  saying  that  I  think  he  is 
ess  to  be  pitied  for  his  unfortunate  indisposition  than  the 
audience  which  is  thereby  deprived  of  the  anticipated 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVEKSARY.  15 

pleasure  of  hearing  a  thoroughly  good  speech.  But  the 
chapter  of  difficulties  does  not  end  here.  [Laughter.]  I 
have  to  assure  you,  upon  my  word  of  honor,  that  until  two 
o'clock  this  very  afternoon,  we  had  the  positive  assurance 
that  the  Hon  Wm.  M.  Evarts  would  speak  here  to-night. 
Then  came  a  telegram,  bidding  our  Ex- Attorney- General  to 
Washington,  where  a  case  of  the  highest  importance  was 
awaiting  his  presence.  It  was  the  imperative  summons  of 
the  law,  and  the  loyal  advocate  obeyed.  Failing  thus  in 
producing  the  talent  we  have  offered  you  upon  the  pro 
gramme,  we  have  nevertheless  made  a  valuable  discovery, 
to  wit :  that  all  the  eloquence  and  ability  of  New- York 
does  not  center  in  the  gentlemen  who  have  disappointed  us ; 
and  I  have  now  the  honor  to  introduce  a  gentleman  who  has 
not  long  been  a  resident  of  your  city,  but  who  is  already 
known  by  reputation  to  every  member  of  your  community, 
the  Rev.  George  H.  Hepworth,  who  will  now  address  you. 
[Applause.] 

Address  of  Rev.  GEO.   H,    HEPWORTH. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  .— 

It  is  peculiarly  embarrassing  to  stand  here  in  the  place  of 
the  gentlemen  in  order  to  listen  to  whom,  you  have  braved 
the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  I  am  reminded  by  my 
position  of  an  illustration.  It  is  told  of  Oliver » Wendell 
Holmes  that  he  was  once  waited  upon  by  a  committee  who 
desired  him  to  fill  the  place  of  Mr.  Rufus  Choate  on  the  plat 
form  of  a  lyceum.  He  stood  before  his  audience  and  said  : 
"  Ladies  and  Gentlemen.  I  do  not  propose  to  fill  Mr.  Choate's 
place,  but  with  your  permission  I  will  wabble  around  in  it  for 
hour."  [Great  laughter  and  applause.]  I  do  not  propose 
to  fill  the  place  of  the  honorable  gentlemen  whom  you  ex 
pected  to  hear  on  this  platform;  I  cannot  speak  in  their 
eloquent  phrases ;  but  the  wish  of  my  heart  is  just  as  warm 


16  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

as  theirs,  and  my  word  of  congratulation  is  just  as  sincere. 
[Applause.]  Gentlemen  of  the  Association:  I  do  most 
heartily  congratulate  you  upon  having  reached  your  fiftieth 
birthday.  You  look  indeed  well,  hale  and  hearty.  You 
bear  your  years  and  your  honors  nobly.  You  have  a  posiv 
tion  largely  influential  in  this  community  ;  and  you  have 
money  that  is  paying  a  good  per  centage  ;  and  my  great 
wish  is  that  I.  may  be  here  in  your  midst  when  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  comes  around,  [laughter]  and  when 
laden  down  with  honors,  yet  buoyed  up  with  the  prayers  of 
the  tens  of  thousands  whom  you  have  saved,  or  helped  to 
save,  you  will  give  to  the  New-Yorkers  of  that  day  a  report 
as  glowing  as  that  which  your  President  has  given  to  us  to 
night  I  cannot  speak  too  warmly  of  the  value  of  an  In 
stitution  of  this  kind.  Every  man  here,  who  has  gray  hairs, 
knows  its  value.  It  has  been  to  him  perhaps  a  rod  and  a 
staff  upon  which  he  has  been  able  to  lean  in  times  of  doubt 
and  in  moments  of  toil  and  perplexity. 

When  a  boy  comes  from  a  New  England  or  from  a  New- 
York  village  into  this  great  place,  he  brings  with  him  not 
only  the  prayers  of  his  mother  and  the  good  advice  of  his 
old  father,  but  also  a  noble  burden  of  boyish  purity  of  heart 
He  is  buoyed  up  with  large  and  golden  dreams  which 
he  hopes  by  hard  work  to  crystalize  into  solid  reality  in 
some  day  in  the  future.  But  the  moment  he  touches  your 
sidewalk  he  feels  the  chill  of  the  social  atmosphere.  It  is 
no  longer  home  to  him.  The  old  roof  protects  him  no  more. 
He  must  depend  wholly  upon  his  own  resources,  and  he 
must  use  alone  his  own  energies.  With  only  a  few  dimes 
in  his  purse,  and  with  all  his  worldly  dry  goods  done  up  in 
a  bandanna  pocket  handkerchief  he  searches  around  among 
the  palaces  on  the  avenue  for  a  home,  but  every  door  is 
shut.  He  goes  into  some  by-street,  hoping  to  live  for  a  few 
weeks  on  the  first  floor,  but  he  cannot  pay  the  rent  He 
goes  up  one  flight  of  stairs,  but  again  the  janitor'  shakes  his 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVEKPAKY.  17 

head.  He  goes  up  another  flight,  and  again  the  honest 
shake  of  the  head  ;  and  so,  up  and  up,  and  up,  that  pure 
boy  goes  with  his  bandanna  pocket  handkerchief  until  he 
stands  on  the  upper  floor,  and  can  reach  up  and  touch  the 
roof.  What  a  strange  contrast  between  his  kindly  home 
and  that  place !  No  sister,  no  mother,  no  friend  !  He  is 
all,  all  alone,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  populace. 
He  has  no  one  who  can  strike  palms  with  him.  He 
has  no  one  who  can  give  him  a  gentle  word  of  advice 
or  of  admonition.  His  day's  work  over,  he  sits  in  his 
room,  reading  by  the  dim,  uncertain  light  of  his  penny 
dip  until  he  is  worn  out  and  weary.  Then  he  takes  his 
hat  and  goes  out  upon  the  side-walk.  He  wanders  from 
street  to  street,  and  curiously  enough,  Satan,  who  seems  to 
be  ubiquitous,  has  opened  a  thousand  door-ways,  and  he 
stands  in  each  one  of  them,  his  horns  and  hoofs  concealed, 
and  beckons  with  gentle  hand  the  youth  to  enter.  Here  is 
a  counter,  and  across  the  counter  is  placed  the  ruby  wine ; 
and  the  boy  is  tempted.  And  here  sits  a  syren  singing  to 
him,  and  weaving  little  by  little  her  spider  web,  hoping  to 
catch  the  fly,  and  when  he  is  helpless  to  rob  him  of  his  all. 
And,  here  and  there,  and  everywhere  these  doors  are  open  ; 
and  yet  for  him  there  is  no  word  of  admonition — no  strong, 
calm,  holy,  beautiful  friendship  to  which  he  can  cling.  And 
so  after  a  few  months  his  honor  becomes  almost  inevitably 
dimmed  just  as  the  impalpable  rust  gathers  upon  the  polished 
surface  of  the  steel  blade  when  you  breathe  upon  it.  If 
now  in  an  auspicious  moment  he  looks  around  and  sees 
some  such  Institution  as  this  which  you  represent  to-night, 
and  hears  cheerful  voices,  and  crosses  the  threshold  and 
sees  the  reading-room,  with  its  books  and  magazines  and 
quarterlies,  with  its  papers  filed  in  every  corner,  the  de 
sire  for  information  seizes  upon  him,  he  takes  a  book  out  of 
your  library,  and  carries  it  home  with  him  ;  and  he  reads 
the  next  night  an  hour  longer  by  his  penny  dip,  than  he  did 
2 


13  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

the  night  before;  and  thus  you,  unconsciously  to  your 
selves,  have  really  reached  out  a  helping  hand  to  that  man, 
and  perhaps  you  have  saved  him  from  the  bottomless  pit 
of  a  loss  of  his  self-respect,  the  pit  of  ruin,  of  present  im 
purity  and  of  moral  degradation.  [Applause.]  Who  can 
count  the  value  of  the  Institution  which  lifts  to  its  mast 
head  such  a  banner  as  that,  not  only  of  relief,  but  of  sal 
vation  ?  A  word  of  advice,  generously  and  nobly  given, 
sometimes  saves  a  soul ;  and  a  kind  word  is  like  a  seed 
dropped  into  the  ground.  You  may  not  see  it  to-day  ;  it  is 
buried  out  of  sight  by  the  dews  of  evening ;  but  when  the 
morning  sun  comes  warm  and  fresh  and  drives  that  night 
away,  the  seed  sends  up  its  little  shoot  and  at  last  comes 
the  blossom  and  the  fruit.  Just  so  it  is  with  such  an 
Institution  as  this.  A  word  here  to-night,  a  word  there  in 
your  lecture  room,  a  book  taken  from  the  shelf  here,  a 
newspaper  taken  from  the  pile  there — each  one  of  these  in 
strumentalities  in  the  hands  of  God's  Providence  may,  in 
such  a  city  as  this,  be  the  means  of  lifting  up  a  desponding 
heart  and  of  putting  new  energy  into  a  despairing  soul.  I 
have  but  one  word  to  say  of  you,  God  bless  the  work  that 
you  have  done,  and  God  grant  that  you  may  indeed  mow 
a  wide  swath  in  the  future. 

The  moment  a  boy  comes  to  New- York,  the  one  idea 
which  he  gets  is  concerning  the  necessity  of  making  money. 
That  becomes  his  heaven.  That  is  what  all  New-Yorkers 
work  for.  The  Frenchman's  idea  of  heaven  is  that  of  a 
place  in  the  midst  of  which  there  is  a  huge  Eepublic  with 
no  Napoleon  III ;  a  Republic  in  which  every  citizen  is  a 
member  of  the  Provisional  Government,  a  Eepublic  which 
maintains  a  standing  army  whose  special  business  it  is  to 
wipe  out  the  defeats  of  Metz  and  Strasburg.  The  English 
man's  idea  of  the  future  is  immense  landed  estates  and  a 
title  to  nobility  of  which  he  forms  the  prominent  part.  But 
a  New-Yorker's  idea  of  heaven  is  a  corner  lot  [laughter] 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSAEY.  19 

and  a  free  stone  front ;  and  a  Government  contract  once  a 
year.     [Renewed  laughter.] 

And  every  single  boy  who  comes  from'  the  country  ex 
pects  that  corner  lot,  and  every  boy  works  for  it  for  the  first 
twenty  years  of  his  business  life ;  and  he  puts  into  the  reali 
zation  of  that  dream  all  the  muscle  of  his  body,  all  the  energy 
of  his  mind  and  all  the  strength  of  his  soul.  You,  gentlemen, 
who  are  gray-headed,  who  are  within  the  reach  of  my  voice, 
can  corroborate  my  words.     You  came  to  this  great  city  years 
and  years  ago  with  nothing.     Now  you  have  your  corner 
lot,  and  you  are  satisfied.     And  what  the  young  gentlemen 
whom  I  represent  here  to-night  want  is  a  corner  lot  just  like 
yours.     Yet,  in  the  attainment  of  such  a  desire,  what  dangers 
there   are !     The   thirst  for  gold  grows  hotter  and  hotter.. 
The  appetite  grows  mightier  by  what  it  feeds  upon,  until  at 
last  the  man  becomes  restless,  weary,  worn  and  tired:  and 
lies  down,  perhaps  in  defeat.     But  your  Institution  comes 
in  when   he   is   fresh  in   his   manly   prime.      While   the 
golden  curls  yet  cluster  around  his  brow,  before  the  blue 
eyes   have  lost   anything   of  their  lustre,   and  while   the 
memory  of  his   old  home   on   the  hillside,   and  the   dear 
thoughts  of  father  and  mother  cling  around  him,  your  In 
stitution  comes  to  him  and  reaches  out  its  warm,  friendly, 
generous  hand,  and  takes  hold  of  his  heart,  and  under  its 
influences  he  bears  those  principles  and  those  virtues  out  of 
which  the  only  sturdy  and  true  manhood  is  made,     [Ap 
plause.] 

I  remember  once,  while  standing  upon  the  sea  shore,  to 
have  seen  a  sight  at  once  grand  and  awful.  The  waves 
were  running  mountain  high,  and  in  their  madness  seemed 
to  throw  their  white  caps  to  the  very  clouds.  I  looked  off 
in  the  distance  and  saw  a  full  rigged  ship.  She  came  rolling 
along  from  wave  to  wave,  and  I  knew,  but  the  captain  did 
not,  that  there  was  a  great  rock  between  her  and  me.  The 
man  who  trod  the  quarter-deck  felt  secure.  He  was  sure 


20  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

of  his  seamanship.  He  thought  that  he  was  master  of  the 
situation.  All  at  once  the  vessel  struck  the  solid  rock,  and 
then  all  was  consternation  and  terror  on  board.  The  wave?, 
like  a  great,  merciless,  ruthless  giant,  lifted  up  the  noble 
craft  in  its  great  arms  and  then  dropped  it  on  the  rock  again. 
In  a  moment  a  dozen  men  were  standing  by  my  side.  They 
unlocked  the  door  of  a  house  on  the  beach  and  took  out  the 
lifeboat.  In  an  instant  those  dozen  men  were  in  the  boat 
and  were  pulling  as  if  for  their  lives.  They  did  not  care 
for  their  own  safety.  There  was  a  manly  pulse  in  every 
heart,  and  a  manly  thrill  in  every  nerve.  They  pulled  as 
though  each  man  were  a  father,  and  he  was  trying  to  save 
his  only  child.  Over  the  waves  they  went  and  then  back  they 
came  with  a  load  of  shipwrecked  passengers.  I  looked 
again  from  the  hill  top  and  there  were  passengers  scattered 
here  and  there  in  the  water.  The  boat  pulled  out  bravely 
once  more,  and  picked  up  the  drowning  ones,  here  a  little 
child  in  its  mother's  arms,  and  there  a  gray  haired  sire  who 
was  struggling  to  keep  the  few  short  hours  that  yet  remained 
to  him,  and  brought  all  safely  to  the  land.  And  then  all 
,our  hearts  went  up  in  thanksgiving  to  God  that  society  had 
Lbuilded  that  house  in  time  of  peace  when  the  ocean  was 
calm  aad  quiet,  so  that  when  the  ocean  was  storm-tossed, 
strong  men  might  save  the  helpless. 

Brothers  1  you  are  doing  a  work  like  unto  that.  There 
are  breakers  all  over  your  city,  and  many  and  many  a 
young  man  is  drawn  through  the  maelstrom  into  the  whirl 
pool,  and  goes  down  never  to  be  seen  again.  Their  number 
is  not  to  be  counted.  You  see  them  one  moment,  and  then 
they  are  gone  forever.  Such  an  Institution  as  this  is  the 
expression  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  great  community 
to  have  lifeboats  all  along  the  coast,  and  to  man  them  with 
those  who  can  be  brave  .and  true.  And  so  I  say  to  you  to 
night — and  it  is  a  simple  word,  and  yet  it  is  warm  from 
.my  heart — God  bless  you,  young  men,  in  the  grand  work 


FIFTIETH   ANNIVERSARY.  21 

which  you  are  doing.     I  give  you  my  hand  and  say,  God  in 
the  Heavens  give  you  good,  speed.     [Great  Applause.] 

The  President :     We  have  heard  from  the  Press  and  from 
the  Pulpit,  and  it  will  be  our  privilege,  later  in  the  evening, 
tov  hear  from  the  Bar.      I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  intro 
ducing  to  you  a  merchant  of  New- York,  Mr.  "W 
Dodge.     [Applause.] 

Address  of  WILLIAM   E.   DODGE,   Esq. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT — When  you  called  upon  me,  about  dusk, 
with  suc*h  a  disconsolate  face,  and  with  your  programme  all 
broken  to  pieces,  I  could  hardly  resist  your  request  to 
come  and  say  a  word  in  behalf  of  the  Mercantile  Library 
Association.  [Applause.] 

It  is  well  for  us,  fellow  citizens,  once  in  a  while,  to  stop, 
amid  the  pressing  cares  of  business,  and  look  around  us  to 
see  what  we  have  in  our  city  which  is  stable  and  likely  to 
last.  And  it  is  well  occasionally  to  look  back,  as  time 
passes  rapidly,  take  our  observation,  and  see  where  we 
are  going. 

A  very  venerable  clergyman,  now  nearly  eighty,  yet  with 
some  strength  and  much  spirit  left,  was  called  upon  to  see 
whether — remembering  the  early  history  of  the  Mercantile 
Library  and  his  love  for  it — he  would  not  come  here  to 
night  and  open  this  meeting  with  prayer.  After  giving  the 
reasons  why  he  could  not  come,  he  said :  "  Fifty  years  ! 
Why,  that  isn't  much."  [Laughter.]  No,  it  is  not  a  very 
great  while ;  but  how  many  things  have  transpired  since 
fifty  years  ago  !  New- York  was  a  very  small  place  when  this 
Library  was  organized.  It  then  had  just  about  one-eighth 
of  its  present  population.  In  1820  we  had  only  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty -three  thousand  inhabitants.  The  bound 
ary  of  New- York  was  then  a  little  beyond  Canal  Stieet ; 
and  those  of  us  who  were  clerks  in  that  day  were  away 
down  town ;  and  those  of  us  who  were  in  the  dry  goods 


22  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

stores  were  all  in  Pearl  Street.  There  was  no  other  place 
for  the  wholesale  dry  goods  business  but  Pearl  Street. 
Then  we  were  without  Croton  water,  without  gas,  with 
out  steamboats,  without  railroads,  without  telegraphs. 
What  were  we  then?  What  are  we  now?  And  Jhis 
Mercantile  Library,  that  has  grown  so  great  in  the  last 
fifty  years,  what  will  it  be  when  it  shall  have  lived  a 
century?  To-day  it  has  an  income  of  sixty  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  and  a  property  worth  half  a  million  of 
dollars.  You  heard  the  President  say  that  the  Library 
had  outgrown  its  present  home.  It  will  nofr  be  long 
before  the  city,  in  its  upward  flight,  will  leave  Astor 
Place  too  far  down  town.  Long  before  the  next  fifty 
years  shall  have  rolled  around,  this  Association,  with  its 
income  of  eighty  or  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  will 
have  accumulated  a  library  such  as  none  other  will  be 
found  in  this  land  ;  and  this  for  the  instruction,  the  benefit, 
and  the  elevation  of  the  coming  merchants  of  New -York. 
Eleven  thousand  young  men  are  now  members  of  the  Mer 
cantile  Library  Association.  They  are  young  men,  clerks, 
soon  to  take  the  place  of  the  merchants  of  New- York, 
and  of  the  land.  0  how  much  they  owe  already,  and  how 
much  they  will  owe  to  you,  as  in  the  future  they  look  back 
to  the  Mercantile  Library  !  [Applause.] 

Friends,  this  library  belongs  to  us.  It  is  the  Mercantile 
Library  of  Neiv-  York.  Let  us  cherish  it.  Let  us  become 
better  acquainted  with  it.  Let  us  interest  the  youth  more  in 
it.  Let  us  who  are  advancing  in  life  encourage  it.  [Applause]. 
A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  debt  of  sixty-five  thousand 
dollars  on  the  building.  The  young  men  were  invited  to 
come  together,  and  books  were  distributed  among  them, 
and  they  went  out  among  the  merchants,  and  asked  thut 
this  debt  might  be  removed,  and  the  interest  which  they 
were  then  paying  on  the  mortgage  might  be  devoted  to  the 
purchase  of  valuable  books.  The  merchants  responded ; 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY.  23 

the  debt  was  paid ;  and  that  noble  building,  now  unencum 
bered,  belongs  to  the  merchants'  clerks  of  New- York. 
[Applause.]  We  are  here  to-night  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  Library.  Having  looked  down  upon  its 
past  years,  which  have  been  so  prosperous,  let  us  look  for 
ward  with  hope  to  the  fifty  years  that  are  to  come.  May  its 
past  prosperity  be  the  security  and  the  surety, of  what  it 
shall  be  in  the  future.  [Applause.] 

The  President :  There  is  a  gentleman  in  the  hall  who  came 
here  with  no  intention  of  speaking,  but  who  has  kindly 
consented  to  say  a  few  words  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  you  will 
thank  me  for  introducing,  as  the  next  speaker,  the  Eev. 
Henry  C.  Potter.  [Applause.] 

Address  of  Rev.  HENRY  C.  POTTER,  D.  D. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT — It  was  a  part  of  the  contract  under 
which  I  was  wrested  from  my  seat  and  brought,  almost 
forcibly,  to  this  platform,  that  if  the  honorable  Mayor  of  the 
City  of  New-York  should  appear,  and  say  his  own  words  in 
his  own  place,  I  was  to  be  released.  It  was  because  the 
Mayor  was  supposed  to  be  laden  down  with  a  new  kind  of 
responsibility  to-night,  that  it  was  thought  that  perhaps  he 
might  not  be  here.  But  since  I  have  been  upon  the  plat 
form,  we  have  seen  his  benign  countenance  beaming  upon 
us  ;  and  we  have  the  assurance  of  our  own  eyes — as  I  heard 
a  cockney  Englishman  express  it  this  morning,  when  he 
opened  his  newspaper  and  read  the  result  of  yesterday's 
election— that  "  'All  is  well !  "  [Great  laughter  and  ap 
plause.] 

I  cannot,  however,  resist  the  temptation  which  is  offered 
me  to  express  the  feeling  which  was  uppermost  in  my  mind 
when  I  came  here  this  evening ;  and  that  was  the  feeling  of 
thankfulness  with  which  I  came  to  this  meeting.  I  think 
I  may  claim  to  be,  perhaps,  the  only  one  of  my  profession, 
who  is  here  this  evening,  who  can"  be  said  to  have  found 


24  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

his  way  to  the  ministry  through  the  Mercantile  Library.  I 
am  proud  to  remind  myself,  to-night,  that  I  was  once  a 
merchant's  clerk ;  and  that  I  owe  a  large  part  of  my  enthu 
siasm  for  letters,  if  any  I  have,  to  the  impetus  which  I  re 
ceived  within  the  alcoves  of  the  Mercantile  Library.  [Ap 
plause.]  It  was  there  that,  as  a  boy,  I  first  learned  to  love, 
not  only  the  great  literary  heroes  of  the  past,  and  not  only 
the  men  of  letters  of  our  own  day,  who  have  been  named 
to  you  to-night,  but  to  love  and  revere,  long  before  I  ever 
saw  him,  the  author  of  Thanatopsis.  [Great  applause.] 
Mr.  Bryant  has  sketched  for  us  a  picture  of  the  future, 
when  some  of  the  young  men  of  another  and  a  later  gen 
eration  shall  take  down  from  their  shelves  the  well-worn 
books  of  the  past,  and  will  recall  with  something  of  curios 
ity,  and  something  of  admiration,  the  names  of  the  men  of 
letters  who  had  delighted  these  earlier  generations.  May  I 
not  say,  to-night,  after  the  graceful  and  eloquent  words 
which  we  have  heard  from  his  lips,  that  if  there  be  any 
name  then  vividly  remembered  and  cherished,  it  will  be  the 
name  of  him  whom  the  Westminster  Review,  only  the  other 
day,  called  the  Prince  of  our  American  Poets — William 
Cullen  Bryant.  [Great  applause.] 

I  am  pleased  to  be  here  to-night  for  another  reason ;  and 
that  is,  because  the  very  title  of  this  institution  marries  two 
words,  which  it  is  the  temptation  of  too  many  men  of  letters 
in  our  day  to  attempt  to  divorce.  This  is  a  mercantile 
library,  an  institution  recognizing  the  value  of  literature, 
under  the  auspices  of  commerce.  You  have  been  told, 
very  often,  that  New- York  can  never  hope  to  be  a  great 
literary  centre  ;  that  it  is  too  much  immersed  in  business ; 
and  the  picture  drawn  by  my  brother,  who  has  just  spoken 
to  you,  of  the  wide-spread  prevalence  of  an  ambition  for 
corner  lots,  has  been  supposed  to  apply  to  every  man  who 
comes  to  New- York  and  makes  money.  But,  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  when  we  come  to  look  about  this  great  city,  what  are 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY.  25 

the  buildings  which  we  see  standing  upon  so  many  of  the 
finest  corner  lots?  How  many  corner  lots  are  covered  by 
that  noble  institution  which  has  contributed  so  largely  to 
literature  and  the  arts — the  Cooper  Institute  ?  [Applause.] 
The  Astor  Library  stands  upon  another  corner  lot ;  and  the 
Lenox  Library  will  stand  upon  another.  [Applause.] 

I  desire  here,  as  an  ex-merchant,  to  call  to  mind  the  noble 
service  rendered  to  literature  by  merchants,  in  the  early  and 
materialistic  days  of  this  Eepublic.  The  finest  private 
library  of  which  I  have  any  knowledge  is  in  the  dwelling 
of  a  merchant  in  Cincinnati.  I  doubt  not  there  are  finer 
here  in  New-York ;  but  I  have  not  been  permitted  to  be 
come  personally  acquainted  with  them.  Let  us  not,  then, 
indulge  in  the  fallacy  that  there  is  any  hostility  between 
a  high  and  elevated  commerce  and  a  high  and  elevated 
literature.  Let  us  recognize  the  fact,  that  this  modern  civ 
ilization  of  ours  educates  a  spirit  which  makes  them  go 
hand  and  hand,  and  that  wherever  the  white  wings  of  com 
merce  carry  the  freightage  of  our  western  hemispherej  there, 
also,  will  be  wafted  the  literature  that  is  to  enlighten  distant 
nations.  [Applause.] 

Many  of  our  New  England  friends  are  fond  of  drawing 
a  contrast  between  New  England  and  New-York — between 
the  spirit  that  reigns  in  and  about  Boston  and  the  spirit  that 
reigns  here ;  yet  I  venture  to  say,  that,  of  the  young  men, 
educated  by  this  Mercantile  Library,  familiar  with  its  litera 
ture,  privileged  there  to  commune  with  the  society  of  the 
past  and  of  the  present,  and  to  forget  that  social  chill  of 
which  my  brother  Hepworth  has  spoken,  in  better  company, 
perhaps,  than  most  young  men  could  find  anywhere  else  in 
New -York — in  the  company  of  Milton  and  Shakespeare, 
of  Chaucer  and  Spencer ;  and  of  the  still  greater  lights  of 
the  past,  of  Dante,  done  into  English  by  our  own  Long 
fellow  ;  and  of  Homer,  done  into  English  verse  by  our  own 
Bryant — [applause] — finding  inspiration  in  such  society,  I 


26  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY. 

venture  to  say  that  our  New  England  friends  will  never  be 
able  to  tell  of  us  such  a  story  as  I  heard  Mr.  Thos.  Hughes 
narrate,  the  other  day,  in  the  company  of  a  few  friends,  of 
a  man  who  was  born  in  New  England,  and  who  had  spent 
his  life  not  a  great  way  from  the  Hub.  He  had  gone,  as  a 
great  many  New  Englanders  are  in  the  habit  of  doing,  to 
visit  the  home  of  Longfellow,  not  merely  because  it  is  the 
abode  of  Longfellow,  but  because  it  was  once  the  temporary 
home  of  Washington.  Mr.  Longfellow  found  him  in  the 
hall,  and  escorted  him  over  the  house,  not  certain  whether 
he  came  to  see  the  house  on  his  account,  or  because  of  its 
early  associations.  When  the  stranger  had  gone  over  the 
house  from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  and  came  again  to  the 
front  door,  he  said,  "I  thank  you  for  the  privilege  that  you 
have  given  me,  sir.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  seen  the 
house  where  Washington  ate  and  slept !"  And  then,  turn 
ing  to  Mr.  Longfellow,  he  said,  "  And  what  might  your 
name  be  ?"  "  My  name  is  Longfellow,"  said  the  poet, 
"Longfellow?"  with  an  air  of  reflection  for  a  moment  or 
two;  "Any relation  to  Abner  Longfellow,  down  in  New 
Bedford  ?"  [Great  laughter  and  applause.] 

I  venture  to  say,  Mr.  President,  that  if  the  Mercantile 
Library  continues  to  render  the  same  service  to  the  young 
men  of  New- York  that  it  has  already  done,  we  shall  not  be 
guilty  of  so  gross  an  ignorance  here  in  this  commercial  and 
unliterary  city. 

I  add  my  hearty  good  wishes  to  those  that  have  been 
already  expressed  here  to-night  for  the  prosperity  of  this 
Society.  I  have  the  fondest  personal  memories  of  its  influ 
ence,  and  the  most  abundant  hopes  of  its  glorious  and  en 
larged  future.  [Great  applause.] 

THE  PRESIDENT  :— 

"  Then  said  the  mother  to  her  son, 

And  pointed  to  his  shield  ; 
'  Come  with  it  when  the  battle's  done, 

Or  on  it— from  the  field.'  " 


FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY.  27 

Amid  the  perplexing  difficulties  that  seem  to  have  sur 
rounded  our  assembling  here  to-night,  it  is  an  encouraging 
thought  that  notwithstanding  the  alarm  and  confusion  of 
that  fatal  yesterday,  we  have  one  tried  soldier  with  us  who 
has  done  even  better  than  by  coming  to  us  on  his  shield — 
by  coming  with  it.  [Applause.] 

The  last  office  that  I  have  to  perform  to-night  is  to  intro 
duce  to  your  kindly  attention,  his  Honor,  Mayor  Hall. 
[Long  continued  applause.] 

Address  of   Hon.  A.  OAKEY   HALL. 

I  thank  the  Eev.  Dr.  Potter,  of  Grace  Church,  for  his 
benediction.  After  it,  I  feel  like  a  Potter's  broken  vessel. 
After  Grace,  should  come  meat ;  but  I  bring  only  an  epi 
logue.  One  of  the  speakers  said  that  he  felt  very  much 
embarrassed  by  the  absence  of  the  gentlemen  upon  this  pro 
gramme  ;  on  the  contrary  /  feel  very  much  relieved.  If 
one  has  an  onyx,  and  not  an  emerald  or  a  ruby,  he  does 
not  wish  to  place  it  in  a  circlet  of  diamonds.  I  come  there 
fore  merely  to  speak  the  epilogue  ;  and  I  remember  to  have 
heard  it  well  said  that  an  epilogue  ought  to  be  short,  and 
should  be  crisp.  I  also  remember  that  for  him  who  pro 
nounces  the  epilogue  there  is  generally  inserted  on  the  pro 
gramme,  lest  his  vanity  be  wounded,  this  sentence  :  "  Ladies 
"  and  gentlemen  are  requested  to  remain  until  the  close  of 
."  the  performance,  as  their  going  out  disturbs  the  harmony 
"  of  the  occasion."  I  am  perfectly  willing,  however,  that 
any  one  should  go  out ;  and  I  feel  utterly  lost  of  late,  un 
less  there  is  about  me,  as  a  speaker,  some  buzz,  much  con 
fusion,  and  a  great  deal  of  contention.  [Laughter.] 

Your  programme,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  certainly  one  on 
which  any  gentleman  might  feel  proud  to  be  placed  ;  and  it 
is  certainly  a  programme  very  fitting  for  the  name  of  a  pub 
lic  man,  as  I  perceive  that  your  musical  selection  begins 
with  "  Solid  Men,"  and  has  for  its  finale  "  Popular  Airs." 


MEKCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

Both     are    appropriate    selections     for     this    Institution. 
[Laughter.] 

It  is  very  appropriate  that  the  City  of  New- York,  in  its 
civic  authority,  should  be  here  to  add  the  great  voice  of  the 
Metropolis  to  the  chorus  sung  by  Mr.  Hepworth:  "God 
speed  the  Mercantile  Library  on  the  occasion  of  its  Fiftieth 
Anniversary."  [Applause.]  I  am  happily  relieved  from 
saying  anything  about  your  Institution,  because  the  whole 
ground  has  been  already  occupied ;  and  I  will  therefore  con 
fine  myself  to  epilogue.  I  wish,  however,  in  reference  to  a 
remark  thrown  out  by  my  friend,  Dr.  Potter,  to  remind  him 
and  you  that  the  phrase,  "  Mercantile  Library,"  is  very  ap 
propriate  and  very  memorable,  because  the  first  public 
library  that  was  founded  in  Europe  after  the  dark  ages 
began  to  merge  into  the  dawn  of  civilization,  was  founded 
by  a  merchant  in  the  City  of  Florence,  by  the  name  of 
Nicholas  Nicoli.  .  You  are  here  to-night  to  celebrate  the 
growth  of  your  fifty-year  old  library  ;  but  some  time  when 
you  have  the  leisure,  when  in  those  pleasant  alcoves 
yonder,  in  the  quiet  of  the  library,  search  among  the  vol 
umes  and  trace  for  yourselves  the  wonderful  growth  that  a 
few  hundred  years  has  wrought,  in  books  and  in  libraries, 
from  the  time  when  the  library  of  Oxford  consisted  of  a  few 
tracts  in  a  chest ;  or  from  the  time  when  the  library  of  the 
Abbey  of  Croyland  consisted  of  a  few  volumes,  which 
could  not  be  loaned  except  under  penalty  of  excommuni 
cation — a  sentence  which  was  then  considered  by  all  classes 
as  worse  than  hanging  or  execution  for  treason.  That  was 
a  long  time  ago,  several  more  times  than  fifty  years.  There 
was  another  library  existing  about  that  time,  in  which  the 
books  were  chained  lest  they  should  be  taken  out,  so  valu 
able  were  they  deemed.  And  for  scores  of  years  were 
books  in  private  libraries  thus  chained,  so  that  readers  ob 
tained  the  milk  of  their  literature  as  a  dairy  maid  returns 
with  rich  cream  from  the  kine  that  have  been  tethered  in 


FIFTIETH   ANNIVEKSABY.  29 

rich  pastures,  lest  they  be  injured  by  too  much  roaming  for 
food. 

As  a  New-York  civic  authority,  I  class  all  libraries,  and 
especially  this  Mercantile  Library,  as  coming  under  the 
class  of  the  magnificent  dispensaries  of  this  city.  Other 
dispensaries  take  care  of  the  body ;  but  over  the  portals 
of  all  public  libraries  may  be  written  the  sign  words  which, 
according  to  Diodorus,  were  written  over  the  portals  of 
the  first  Egyptian  public  library,  and  which  translated  reads, 
"  Medicine  of  the  Mind." 

In  this  luxurious  age,  in  comparison  with  the  prices  of 
other  things,  the  fee  of  five  dollars  per  year  almost  makes 
this  institution  a/ree  library ;  and  I  am  happy  to  know  that, 
although  it  is  not  nominally  or  technically  free,  it  is,  unlike 
a  certain  free  library,  open  at  night,  so  that  the  working 
man  may  obtain  access  to  it.  And  I  take  this  occasion 
briefly  to  announce — since  reference  has  been  made  to  Mr. 
Cooper — that  it  is  in  contemplation  by  the  city  authorities 
to  adopt  a  suggestion  of  his,  and  by  his  aid,  and  the  assist 
ance  which  I  think  the  public  treasury,  with  the  assent 
of  all  parties,  may  give,  to  create  an  entirely  free  lending 
library  in  the  City  of  New-York.  [Applause.]  And  it  may 
be  that  the  Mercantile  Library  may  be  captured  for  that 
purpose,  and  converted  into  a  free  lending  library — the  city 
giving  it  full  and  proper  indemnity  for  the  loss  of  its  dues. 
That  would  do  no  wrong  to  you,  or  to  the  incorporators ; 
and  would  make  all  the  people  of  this  great  city  members 
of  your  Association. 

I  cannot  finish  my  epilogue  without  indulging  a  pardon 
able  pride,  by  stating  that  twenty-five  years  ago  my  humble 
name  was  inscribed  upon  your  books  ;  and  often,  amid  the 
roar  of  the  metropolis,  I  have  to  recollect  with  gratitude  the 
cozy  quietude  of  those  dear  reading-rooms  in  old  Clinton 
Hall,  in  the  very  centre  of  a  circle  that  now  may  well  be 
described  as  the  reading-room  of  the  world,  for,  within  tha" 


30  MERCANTILE   LIBRARY. 

circle  radiates — to,  at  least,  the  American  world — the  news 
paper  literature  of  this  country. 

Fifty  years  ago  !  Why,  gentlemen,  it  is  your  golden 
wedding!  Shakespeare  says,  "Let  us  not  to  the  marriage 
of  true  minds  admit  impediment."  Do  not  libraries,  in  one 
sense,  wed  true  minds  for  discussion,  and  for  the  pleasant 
interchanges  of  mental  life  ? 

Long,  in  the  future  of  the  City  of  New-York,  may  this 
Association  thrive  as  wonderfully  and  deservedly  as  it  has 
in  the  past  Long  into  its  portals  may  there  throng,  not 
only  merchants  and  clerks,  but  their  wives  and  daughters, 
to  shut  out,  for  a  brief  time  at  least,  the  perplexities  of 
business  and  society.  And  long  may  its  subscribers,  each 
time  on  entering  the  library,  recall  the  beautiful  salutation 
of  the  Copenhagen  librarian,  commencing, 

"  Salvete  aureoli  mei  libelli," 
which  may  be  rendered  thus : 

Hail,  my  books !   my  golden  treasures  ! 
Objects  of  delicious  pleasures, 
Whom  my  eyes  rejoicing  please, 
Whom  my  hands  in  rapture  seize ; 
Introducing  wits  and  sages, 
Lights'  who  beamed  through  many  ages, 
Then  left  to  leaves  their  conscious  story, 
And  dared  to  trust  to  you  their  glory 
And  their  hopes  of  fame  achieved ; 
Them,  dear  books,  you  ne'er  deceived ! 

[Applause.] 


THE    FIFTH 


ANNUAL   DINNER 


OF    THE 


EX-OFFICERS'    ONION, 


AT 


DELMONICO'S, 


EVEKTIKTO-, 


NOVEMBER    10,    1870. 


ifth    llnnual    Dinner. 


The  Fifth  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Officers'  Union  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  Association,  was  given  at  Delmonico's, 
Thursday  evening,  November  10th,  1870. 

Mr.  H.  1ST.  CAMP  presided,  and  on  his  right  were  Alex 
ander  T.  Stewart,  Esq.,  A.  J.  Mundella,  M.P.,  Hon.  Henry 
Hilton,  Eev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  Esq.,  Sam 
uel  Sloan,  Esq.,  Thomas  H.  Faile,  Esq.,  Edmund  Coffin, 
Esq.,  "Wm.  E.  Dodge,  Jr.,  Esq.,  J.  B.  Vermilye,  Esq.,  Henry 
Clews,  Esq.,  Hon.  Lyman  Tremaine,  and  Isaac  H.  Bailey, 
Esq. ;  upon  his  left  were  Hon.  Stewart  L.  Woodford,  Hon. 
Wm.  E.  Dodge,  Daniel  James,  Esq.,  Peter  Cooper,  Esq., 
Maj.-G-en.  Trwin  McDowell,  Eichard  Lathers,  Esq.,  Hon. 
Smith  Ely,  Jr.,  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox,  M.C.,  Maj.-Gen.  Alex 
ander  S.  Webb,  Eev.  William  Adams,  D.D.,  Eev.  C.  C 
Tiffany,  E.  L.  Grodkin,  Esq.,  and  J.  E.  Kennedy,  Esq. 

After  the  dinner,  the  Chairman,  in  proposing  the  first 
toast  of  the  evening,  said  : 

Fellow  Members  of  the  Officers'  Union:  Again  we  are 
permitted  to  meet  together  around  these  festive  boards,  and 
to  celebrate  in  a  fitting  manner  this,  our  fifth  anniversary, 
and  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Asso 
ciation  ;  an  Association  to  which  all  of  us,  during  some  pe 
riod  of  our  lives,  have  given  a  portion  of  our  thoughts  and 
of  our  time.  You  will,  I  hope,  permit  me  on  this  occasion, 
very  briefly  indeed,  to  congratulate  you  on  the  success 
which  has  attended  our  efforts  in  the  formation  and  carrying 
3 


34  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

on  of  this  Society.     Unlike  many  of  the  societies  of  New- 
York, — the   St.  Nicholas,   the   New  England,    and   the   St. 
Oeorge — which   have   for  their  object  the  calling   of  men 
together  of  one  clime,  country,  state  or  city,  for  charitable 
purposes,  we  are  banded  together  for  the  purpose  of  renew 
ing  old  associations,  of  reviving  friendships  that  else  were 
dead  ;  of  re-enkindling  our  affections,  and  keeping  alive  our 
love  for  an  Institution,  which,  in  our  earlier  days,  was  to  us 
a  friend,  a  counsellor,  a  guide.     [Applause.]     And  to  give 
to  the  Board  of  Direction  that  may  be  in  power,  whatever 
aid  we  may  in  carrying  on  the  great  work  of  this  Institution. 
That  the  object  of  our  Society  has  been  attained,  I  need 
only  refer  you  to  the  scene  before  you  to-night     [Applause.] 
During  the  year  nothing  has  occurred  in  our  Society  of 
marked  importance.     Our  members  are  about  the  same  in 
number  as  last  year.     We  have  had  a  few  withdrawals,  and 
a  few  admissions,  so  that  the  number  has  remained  about 
the  same.     From  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  drawing  our 
membership  only  from  a  limited  number  as  we  do,  (for  only 
ex -officers  can  be  members,)  we  cannot  expect  any  large  in 
crease  in  any  one  year ;  nor  can  we  at  any  time  expect  to 
number  many  more  members  than  we  have  at  present.     I 
think  that  I  may  say,  however,  that  we  have  upon  our  rolls 
to-day  about  all  the  live,  active,  energetic  members  of  the 
various  boards  which  have  preceded  the  present  very  able 
one.     [Applause.] 

It  is  always  pardonable  for  those  who  have  been  connected 
with  an  institution,  in  its  management,  to  look  with  pride 
and  satisfaction  upon  the  success  which  it  has  attained  ;  and 
we  are  very  apt  to  think  that  some  measure,  perchance,  put 
forward  during  the  time  that  we  were  ourselves  members 
has  been  largely  instrumental  in  the  success  of  the  Society.' 
As  ex-officers,  we  have  a  great  and  enduring  pride  in  the 
success  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  and  in  the 
position  which  it  holds  to-day  among  the  kindred  institu- 


OF  THE   EX-OFFICEKS'   UNION.  35 

tions  of  the  country  and  of  the  world.  When  we  look  back 
to  the  time  when  we  ourselves  were  connected  with  the  In 
stitution  as  officers  ;  or  if  we  go  still  further  back,  to  the 
time  when  with  feeble,  uncertain  breath,  it  first  showed  signs 
of  life ;  or  later,  to  the  time  when  such  men  as  Philip  Hone, 
and  John  K.  Leavitt,  and  Lawrence  Nash,  aided  our  in 
fancy  ;  or  still  later,  when  such  men  as  Wilson  G.  Hunt, 
and  others,  came  to  us,  and  aided  in  placing  our  building 
out  of  debt — I  say,  when  we  look  on  that  picture,  and  then 
on  this,  we  may  well  feel  proud,  nay,  honored  in  having 
been,  no  matter  how  humbly,  connected  with  the  management 
of  an  Institution  that  has  done,  and  is  .destined  to  do  so 
much  good  to  our  beloved  City  of  New-York.  [Applause.] 
There  are  one  or  two  features  connected  with  our  institu 
tion,  which  I  think  are  worthy  of  especial  attention.  Until 
within  a  few  years,  since  which  the  Clinton  Hall  Associa 
tion  has  furnished  volumes  to  our  library,  the  whole  accu 
mulation  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  volumes  has 
been  the  result  of  a  careful,  wise,  earnest  husbandry  of 
the  receipts  of  the  members  for  dues.  With  two  or  three 
exceptions,  our  library  has  never  been  the  recipient  of  be 
quests.  When  }^ou  remember  that  out  of  this  fund  (and 
the  dues  for  many  years  were  but  two  dollars  per  year,  I 
think  for  about  forty  years,  and  then  three  dollars,  and  now 
four,)  the  whole  expenses  of  our  library,  with  its  necessarily 
large  clerical  force,  have  been  paid,  you  will  readily  see  how 
honestly,  how  well,  how  judiciously  the  affairs  of  our  insti 
tution  have  been  managed  since  its  very  organization. 
[Applause.]  As  I  said  before,  our  library,  with  two  or 
three  exceptions,  has  never  been  the  recipient  of  any  be 
quests.  The  question  has  often  occurred  to  me,  and  I  doubt 
not  to  many  others — why  is  this  ?  why  is  it  that  our  mer 
chants,  in  their  large  hearted  liberality,  dispensing  their 
charities  with  a  princely  hand,  have  not  remembered  an  in 
stitution  like  this  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  there  is  no  way  in 


36  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 

which  money  can  do  more  good  than  by  having  the  interest 
of  it  provide  books  for  the  young.  I  beg  to  commend  this 
thought  to  the  moneyed  men  of  New- York,  hoping  that 
the  seed  may  fall  in  rich  ground,  and  bear  fruit  a  thousand 
fold.  [Applause.] 

The  great  and  pressing  need  of  to-day — and  if  the  press 
ing  need  of  to-day,  how  much  more  of  the  future  ? — is  a 
new,  large,  fire-proof  building,  to  contain  the  treasures  that 
we  already  own.,  [Applause.]  The  question  is,  how  shall 
this  be  attained  ?  We  have  called  upon  the  good  citizens 
of  New-York  frequently,  and  our  appeals  have  never  been 
in  vain ;  nor  do  I  think  we  shall  appeal  to  them  again  in 
vain.  But  you,  the  members  of  the  Officers'  Union,  will 
have  a  duty  to  do  in  this  regard.  Work  must  be  done  be 
fore  we  can  obtain  this  desideratum  to  which  we  all  look 
forward  with  so  much  of  interest,  I  am  confident  that  the 
members  of  our  library,  in  expecting  from  the  merchants 
of  New-York  a  liberal  response  to  the  call  which  will,  I 
trust,  be  made  on  them  one  of  these  days,  will  not  be  dis 
appointed.  [Applause.] 

But  I  will  detain  you  no  longer. „  We  have  with  us  to 
night  very  many  distinguished  gentlemen,  from  many  of 
whom  we  expect  to  hear.  I  shall  therefore  close  the  few 
remarks  I  have  made  by  offering  the  first  regular  toast  of 
the  evening : 

"  The  State  of  New- York,  an  empire  based  on  the  will  of 
the  people.  While  the  foundation  lasts,  the  superstructure 
is  imperishable." 

The  Governor  of  the  State  was  expected  to  be  here  to 
speak  to  this  toast.  He  was  called  to  Albany ;  but  we  have 
Ex-Lieutenant-Go vernor  Woodford  here.  [Cheers.]  In 
writing  his  acceptance  of  our  invitation,  he  says :  "It  will 
give  me  great  pleasure  to  be  with  you,  provided  Governor 
Hoffman  has  not  sent  me  so  far  up  Salt  Kiver  that  I  cannot 
get  back  in  time/'  [Great  laughter  and  applause.]  The 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  37 

fact  that  he  is  with,  us  is  evidence  enough  that  he  has  not 
been  sent  so  very  far  in  that  direction ;  and  is  further  evi 
dence  that  he  is  ready  and  willing  to  stand  half  a  dozen 
such  defeats  as  he  has  had  within  the  last  three  days. 
[Cheers  and  applause.] 

HON.  STEWAET  L.  WOODFORD. 
MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  MERCANTILE 
LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION, — There  may  be  a  possible  fitness  in 
my  speaking  to  you  in  response  to  the  a  State  of  New- 
York  ;"  for  within  the  last  seven  weeks  I  have  visited  most 
of  the  State  [applause],  and  have  found  safe  return  to  my 
New- York  home  by  the  way  of  Salt  River.  [Renewed 
laughter  and  applause.]  Our  State  should  touch  our  love 
and  our  pride  very  deeply.  We  are  in  the  centre  of  the 
Atlantic  chain.  To  this  point  the  wealth  and  the  enterprise 
of  our  merchants  brings  whatever  this  entire  nation  needs 
for  its  use,  from  the  lands  beyond  the  sea.  Here  the  cotton 
and  the  sugar  of  the  South,  the  corn  and  the  wheat  of  the 
North- West,  the  ore  of  Pennsylvania,  the  manufactures  of 
New  England  and  of '  the  Middle  States,  find  their  mar 
ket  and  their  sale.  To  you,  as  mercantile  men,  1  need  say 
nothing,  either  of  what  New- York  has  done  in  the  past,  of  what 
she  is  in  the  present,  or  of  what  she  so  justly  promises  to 
be  in  the  future.  We  occupy  a  position,  both  geographi 
cally,  and  because  of  our  wealth  and  power,  that  imposes 
large  responsibilities  upon  all  New-Yorkers.  We  should 
be  radical  in  striving  to  secure  all  that  may  add  to  the 
wealth,  to  the  culture,  and  to  the  highest  prosperity  either 
of  our  State  or  of  the  Union.  [Applause.]  We  should 
be  conservative  in  holding  all  that  is  good  in  the  past,  that 
it  may  be  the  seed  corn  of  our  growth  in  the  years  to  come. 
And  more  than  that — and  now  I  speak  to  you  as  young 
men — you  should  do  your  duty,  not  merely  as  merchants — 
the  plethoric  pocket-books  that  rustle  with  greenbacks 


38  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 

under  each  table  indicate  that  you  have  done  that  already 
[a  laugh] — but  if  we  would  have  our  State  and  nation  be 
what  she  should  be,  the  young  men  of  the  land  should  not 
forget  themselves  in  the  mere  scrambling  for  the  dollars. 
[Applause.]  You  should  cling  to  all  that  is  best  in  cul 
ture,  to  all  that  is  broadest  in  education,  to  all  that  is 
highest  and  most  beautiful  in  art.  You  should  make  your 
Mercantile  Library,  with  its  magnificent  accumulation  of 
books,  its  courses  of  scientific  lectures,  its  work  in  the  prep 
aration  of  young  men — you  should  make  it  the  flower  that 
typifies  the  beauty  of  your  commercial  endeavor,  as  the 
wealth  of  your  merchants  typifies  and  illustrates  its  success. 
[Great  applause.]  While  toiling  in  the  counting-room,  the 
storehouse,  or  the  bank,  do  not  forget  that  your  brains  are 
worth  more  than  your  pockets — that  an  idea  in  your  head 
that  shall  be  a  power  to  you  and  a  life  to  your  fellows,  is 
worth  more  than  a  thousand  added  to  your  bank  account. 
Do  not  forget  another  thing :  that  you,  young  men,  to  what 
ever  party  you  may  belong,  should  give  your  best  thought, 
your  most  earnest  endeavor,  to  make  the  politics  of  your 
State  and  of  your  land  pure,  honest,  efficient  for  the  real 
up  building  of  the  people ;  for,  for  the  up-building  of  the 
peoples  all  democracies  and  all  republics  were  instituted 
and  made.  [Applause.]  Your  toast  has  said  that  so  long- 
as  New-York  rests  upon  the  will  of  the  people,  the  super 
structure  will  be  enduring.  See  that  your  young  men  are 
educated.  See  that  your  young  men  are  honest.  See  that 
they  stand  by  that  which  is  best,  which  is  purest,  which  is 
most  progressive — alike  in  business  and  in  politics. 
[Applause.]  Remember  another  thing:  that  when  the 
strife  and  the  bitterness  of  these  annually  recurring  elec 
tions  are  past,  that  our  State  and  nation  rises  as  something 
better  than  party,  something  higher  than  platform,  some 
thing  to  which  all  good  citizens  should  give  their  most 


UNION.  39 

loving  prayers,  and  their  most  earnest  effort.  [Applause.] 
See  to  it,  that  in  the  public  life  of  all  your  officials,  you  are 
ready  to  approve  that  which  is  right,  whether  the  officer  be 
with  you  in  political  theory  or  opposed  to  you;  see  to  it 
that  you  are  ready  to  condemn  that  which  is  wrong,  whether 
the  actor  be  with  you  in  sentiment  or  be  opposed  to  you. 
[Great  applause.] 

Let  us  all,  one  and  all,  without  regard  to  the  lines  that 
have  divided  us,  and  that  shall  divide  us  in  political  strug 
gles,  do  our  whole  duty  as  New- Yorkers,  as  citizens,  and  as 
earnest,  true-hearted  young  men.     [Applause.] 
Allow  me,  in  closing,  to  propose  a  volunteer  toast : 
"  The  Governor  of  the  State  of  New- York  :  may  he  be 
supported  in  all  that  is  right,  and  generously  and  fairly  criti 
cised  in  all  that  is  wrong."     [Applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  1  give  you  as  the  second  regular  toast : 
"  The  City  of  New-York :  unequaled  in  the  splendor  of 
her  geographical  position,  she  welcomes,  through  her  eastern 
portal  the  citizens  of  the  Old  World,  and  from  her  western 
gates  issue  myriads  of  people  of  the  New.  Long  the  chief 
city  of  America,  soon  to  become  the  metropolis  of  the 
world." 

Until  about  six  o'clock,  his  Honor,  Mayor  Hall,  was  ex 
pected  to  be  present  and  respond  to  this  toast,  as  he  prom 
ised  to  do,  and  as  we  know  he  desired  to  do.  But  at  half- 
past  six  he  writes  us  :  "  The  cold,  raw  wind  has  shut  up 
my  vocal  organs,  already  heavily  taxed."  So  we  cannot 
have  a  response  from  the  Mayor  of  our  City.  But  among 
our  guests  we  have  one  who  talks  well  upon  any  subject 
I  ever  heard  him  talk  upon ;  and  I  shall  take  the  liberty 
of  calling  upon  him  to  respond  to  this  toast — the  Hon.  S. 
S.  Cox,  sometimes  called  "  Sun-Set  Cox ;"  but  day  before 
yesterday  he  proved  that  there  was  no  sun-set  to  his  name. 
[Applause.] 


40  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

t 

HON.  S.  S.  COX. 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  came  here  this  evening  fully  prepared  to 
respond  to  a  toast  of  a  different  order— thoroughly  accom 
plished,  as  I  supposed,  to  speak  on  quite  another  theme.  I 
was  put  down  at  the  end  of.  the  roll,  on  the  old  toast  to 
"  Woman ;"  and  I  reckoned  that,  by  the  end  of  the  feast, 
we  might  all  become  so  oblivious  to  eloquence,  that  my 
duty  could  be  easily  discharged.  But  I  am  called  to  a  dif 
ferent  task,  and  to  one  which  should  have  been  discharged 
by  our  worthy  Mayor.  I  suppose  the  Mayor  is  at  home, 
and  if  not  looking  after  his  famous  figures  of  speech,  he  is 
doubtless  ciphering  up  the  figures  of  the  late  election. 
[Laughter.]  I  feel  very  incompetent  to  respond  to  the  toast 
which  has  been  so  kindly  proposed  by  my  friend,  the  chair 
man.  I  feel  my  inability  to  speak  in  this  volunteer  manner, 
not  only  my  inability,  mentally,  to  speak  for  the  big  City 
of  New-York,  but  I  feel  very  disproportionate  physically, 
for  any  such  effort.  You  must  therefore  excuse  me  from 
making  anything  but  a  very  short  speech. 

The  dominant  idea  of  your  toast  is,  that  New- York  sits 
here  as  the  gateway  of  the  nations,  as  the  great  thorough 
fare  through  which,  not  only  commerce  and  trade,  but  the 
very  people  are  moving,  as  if  by  some  divine  order,  to  the 
great  West.  As  I  come  from  the  land  of  sunset,  a  land 
powerful  in  arms,  as  my  old  comrade,  Gen.  McDowell,  can 
illustrate,  and  rich  in  her  beautiful  soil,  as  all  your  granaries 
and  elevators  demonstrate,  I  can  speak,  in  one  sense,  for 
that  great  West ;  and  as  your  toast  connects  the  West  with 
the  East,  and  New-York  with  the  outland  and  the  inland, 
I  would  for  a  moment  make  a  little  horoscope  for  your  city, 

New- York  has  just  begun  her  great  career.  She  will  be 
the  metropolis,  not  only  of  this  hemisphere,  but  of  this 
globe.  She  is  destined  to  be  so.  [Applause.]  The  island 
of  Manhattan  was  never  intended  as  a  mere  pasturage.  It 


UNION.  41 

I 

was  never  intended,  as  the  first  Dutchmen  tried  it,  merely 
for  raising  cabbages,  or  grass.  You  cannot  sub-soil  New- 
York  so  well  as  you  can  some  other  parts  of  our  great 
country.  New- York  was  intended,  not  for  agriculture,  not 
for  farming,  nor  yet  for  forest ;  but  it  was  set  as  a  great 
jewel  on  the  very  brow  of  the  ocean,  that  all  nations  might 
send  to  her  their  people  and  their  commerce.  She  reaches 
out  her  hand  to  all  the  world,  or  would  reach  it,  if  her 
better  day  in  commerce  were  dawning,  which  I  sincerely 
hope.  [Applause.]  If  New- York  continues  to  increase  in 
the  future  as  she  has  in  the  past  forty  years,  I  think  it  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  New- York,  at  the  end  of  a  cen 
tury,  will  have  six  millions  of  people ;  and  that  the  nation, 
of  which  New- York  will  be  the  metropolis,  will  then  have 
a  hundred  millions.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  island 
of  Manhattan  will  alone  have  six  millions  of  people  ;  but 
we  shall  do  what  other  cities  have  done,  we  shall  push  over 
to  Brooklyn  and  "Williamsburg,  and  draw  that  distant 
Jersey  — [a  laugh]  —  somewhat  nearer  to  New -York,  and 
make  one  grand  metropolis  of  all.  [Applause.]  Young 
men  here,  to-night,  will  live  to  see  New- York  City  a  city  of 
six  millions ;  and  I  believe  that  some  of  our  elder  men 
here  will  also  live  to  see  it.  I  will  conclude  my  response 
by  wishing  you  all  a  life  so  long  that  you  may  see  New- 
York  City  with  a  population  of  six  millions,  and  attend 
the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Mercantile  Library 
Association.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN — The  next  toast  is  the  one  which  is  the 
nearest  to  our  hearts  : 

"The  Mercantile  Library  Association;  a  half  century  of 
steadily  increasing  usefulness  constitutes  its  appropriate 
eulogy." 

Of  course,  there  is  but  one  person  in  the  room  who  can 
appropriately  respond  to  a  toast  like  this,  the  very  able  and 
energetic  President  of  the  Association,  Mr.  M.  C.  D.  Borden. 


42  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 


M.  C.  D.  BORDEN,  ESQ. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  and  GENTLEMEN  /—One  of  our  later  novel 
ists  in  one  of  his  most  pleasing  efforts,  for  the  moment  aban 
dons  his  fiction  to  give  place  to  a  most  truthful  remark— 
"  when  we  write  a  story  or  sing  a  poem  of  the  great  Nine 
teenth  Century,  I  give  you  my  sacred  word  of  honor  there 
is  but  one  fear — not  that  our  theme,  will  be  beneath  us, 
but  we  miles  below  it." 

So,  Sir,  when  I  undertake  to  speak  to  the  Toast  you  have 
given  me,  I  am  impressed  by  the  immensity  of  the-  subject 
and  my  utter  helplessness  to  meet,  at  all  adequately,  its 
claims. 

A  famous  writer  of  our  own  times  makes  Coleridge  re 
sponsible  for  saying  that  if  he  were  a  clergyman  in  Corn 
wall,  he  should  preach  fifty-two  sermons  a  year  against 
wreckers.  Having  at  heart  the  best  interests  of  the  Asso 
ciation  which  I  now  represent,  the  same  spirit  must  be  my 
apology  for  addressing  you  on  the  real  poverty  of  our 
Library  and  its  one  essential  want 

Mr.  President,  I  have  but  one  story  to  tell.  It  is  that  of 
a  great  Institution,  conceived  in  the  interests  of  that  vastly 
numerous  class  to  which  most  of  us  now  belong — born  in 
the  obscurity  of  a  modest  enterprise — nurtured  in  the  high 
purpose  of  its  beneficent  aim — filling  each  new  year  of  life 
with  a  year's  record  of  accomplished  good — established  at 
last,  beyond  all  contingency  and  doubt,  upon  the  firm  basis 
of  experiment  proven  a  success.  It  is  the  story  of  an  In 
stitution  that  has  a  broad  philanthropy  for  its  object- 
indiscriminate  good  to  all  as  its  practiced  motto — and  a  half 
century  of  faithful  service,  the  unimpeachable  evidence  of 
a  stable  and  permanent  worth.  It  is  the  story  of  sunshine 
and^  storm — of  conquest  and  defeat — of  sufferance  and  re 
ward  ;  the  rainbow  experience  that  discovers  through  and 


OF  THE   EX-OFFICEES'    UNION.  43 

beyond  the  blinding  shower  a  pledge  of  bright  and  glowing 
promise.     [Applause.] 

It  is  the  story  of  an  Institution  that  has  fought  its  way 
through  weary  years  of  cold  and  discouraging  doubt — 
whetting  its  determination  against  rough  difficulties  and 
resisting  force — never  so  near  a  great  danger  as  to-day, 
when,  with  the  mute  appeal  of  its  fifty  well-spent  years,  it 
rests  calmly  and  quietly  in  its  worn-out  shell  to  see  a 
kindred  organization  celebrate  its  early  anniversary  in  a 
stately  and  palatial  home.*  Under  circumstances  ordinarily 
incident  to  our  festive  gathering,  I  might  content  myself 
with  a  simple  acknowledgement  of  the  compliment  you 
have  offered  me,  pausing  only  to  give  expression  to  the  cus 
tomary  sentiment  of  the  occasion,  and,  in  charity,  find  my 
seat  in  the  briefest  possible  time. 

But  we  are  assembled  under  circumstances  most  extraor 
dinary.  We  are  about  to  close  the  book  and  seal  the 
record  of  our  semi-centennial  life.  What  a  history  that  vol 
ume  contains !  Were  it  my  province  to  unfold  it  now, 
reading  but  a  single  page  at  random  here  and  there,  how 
would  your  hearts  thrill  with  conscious  joy  and  thankful 
ness  at  that  long  record  of  accomplished  good ! — a  history 
of  achievement  and  success,  buoyant  and  full  of  cheer, 
punctuated,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  by  some  mis 
takes  and  many  doubtful  measures,  but  these  serving  only, 
like  the  mariners'  trusted  lights,  to  mark  the  shoals  and 
dangers  of  our  experience,  recording  now  and  then  defeats, 
but  writing  always  after  them,  in  quick  succession,  the  sub 
stantial  evidence  of  greater  victories — a  bright  chronicle, 
take  it  all  in  all,  of  usefulness  and  good.  [Applause.]  To 
dwell  at  length  on  this  were  a  pleasing  and  a  grateful  task. 
But  another  book  is  to  be  written.  The  second  part  of  our 
work  begins  here  and  to-night ;  and  I  have  surely  mistaken 
the  courage  and  zeal,  the  loyalty  and  faith,  the  interest  and 

*  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 


44  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

metal  of  past  and  present  friends,  if  the  first  page  is  to  be 
unworthy  of  the  volume  we  have  already  closed.  [Ap 
plause.] 

I  call  your  attention,  then,  to  one  fact — a  fact  that  has 
been  staring  us  in  the  face  most  suggestively  for  years, 
creeping  upon  us  with  our  growth,  the  natural  consequence 
of  our  prosperity,  making  itself  more  and  more  patent  with 
expanding  age,  confronting  us  to-day  with  an  earnestness 
that  compels  our  respect  and  a  demand  that  will  not  be 
ignored.  It  is  the  want,  grown  into  the  necessity,  of  a 
new,  a  more  commodious,  and  a  safer  building.  [Applause.] 

Few  enterprises  exhibit  the  progress  of  our  own.  Not 
many  institutions  need  so  little,  after  all,  to  insure  a  perfect 
and  lasting  success.  You  know  how  modest  our  beginning 
was.  You  have  witnessed  the  rapidity  of  our  growth. 
You  recognize  in  our  Library  of  to-day  a  great  and  distinct 
ive  power  for  good.  It  is  a  prophecy  almost  fulfilled,  that 

s  to  be  the  greatest,  the  grandest,  the  most  useful  of  its 
kind.  Thus  far  no  stain  of  weak  indifference  or  thought 
less  inefficiency  mars  its  fair  name.  Thus  far,  it  has 
kept  pace  with  the  times  and  the  progress  of  our 
matchless  city.  We  have  seen  it  in  Fulton  Street,  a 
half  century  since,  the  pioneer— the  first  of  the  many 
that  have  grown  around  it— as  a  distributor  of  books, 
then  with  a  handful  of  volumes  and  a  miniature  hall  for  its 

s  than  two  hundred  members.  Five  years  elapse,  and 
find  it  in  another  home  with  a  multiplied  list  of  books, 

larger  roll  of  members  and  a  few  exceptional  friends 
among  ^he  outside  world.  Less  than  five  years  more,  and 

has  moved  again,  this  time  to  a  building  of  its  own— the 

Clinton  Hall  of  forty  years  ago.     A  score  years  more  are 

passed  and  the  greatest  and  the  grandest  move  of  all,  AS 

YET,  to  the  Clinton  Hall  of  to-day-its  hundred  members 

Itiphed  a  hundred  times,  and  a  hundred  volumes  where 

it  had  but  one. 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  U:NTION.  '  45 

Here  then,  it  rests  to-day,  inherently  strong  and  pros 
perous,  abounding  in  books,  the  repository  of  vast  and  ac 
cumulative  wealth  in  literature  and  art,  the  occupant  of  a 
building  once  well  adapted,  but  already  inadequate  to  its 
use — a  home  venerable  with  age,  but  correspondingly  tot 
tering  and  weak,  so  far  from  fire-proof  as  to  be  uncommonly 
susceptible  to  fire,  possible  of  destruction,  with  all  it  con 
tains,  in  a  single  day.  Well  may  we  pause  in  the  flush  of 
a  pardonable  pride,  to  contemplate  a  danger  so  appalling ! 
Well  may  we  start  from  our  lethargy  and  sleep,  to  think 
and  plan  and  ACT  for  our  defense.  [Applause.] 

First  and  above  all,  sir,  I  speak  for  the  safety  of  our 
property  and  books.  It  is  the  provident  thought  of  a  wise 
man,  who  discovers  himself  in  possession  of  that  which  he 
values,  to  find  some  safe  and  secure  depository  for  its  keep 
ing.  It  is  the  instinct  of  the  child.  It  is  the  principle  that 
underlies  all  others  in  maturer  life.  The  same  rule  of 
caution,  inborn  in  our  nature  and  a  part  of  our  very  being, 
follows  us  from  the  cradle  to  youth,  from  youth  to  man 
hood,  from  manhood  to  the  grave.  Out  of  this  comes  safety 
to  person,  security  to  property  and  home.  It  is  in  obe 
dience  to  this  law  of  caution — everywhere  recognized  and 
obeyed — that  countless  wealth  appears  in  the  form  of  stores 
and  storehouses,  proof  alike  against  fire  and  the  burglar's 
hand.  Property  is  at  a  risk ;  no  sacrifice  is  too  costly  to 
protect  it.  Material  possessions  are  threatened ;  how  sub 
lime  the  effort,  how  prodigal  the  exposure,  the  best  of  us 
will  make  in  their  defence.  Tell  me  now,  where  is  the  mer 
chandize  to  match  in  value  our  ripe  and  well-earned  har 
vest  of  books?  What  fabric  of  the  hand  that  hand  can 
make  again  to  compare  in  worth  to  the  work  of  minds,  the 
heritage  direct  from  (rod?  Why  hesitate  to  deal  with 
facts  ?  In  that  building,  while  I  speak,  there  are  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand  books.  Many,  aye,  MOST  of  them, 
money  can  replace.  But  cut  of  that  collection,  there  are 


46  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 


a  many  more — rare  relics  of  master  minds,  rich  trophies  of 
classic  day,  of  which  no  attainable  duplicates  exist.    There, 
too,  lie  files  of  the  press,  complete  and  in  accessible  form — 
the  current  news  of  to-day  and  days  long  since  gone  by — 
the  world's  history  in  detail — the  authentic  record  of  the 
little  and  the  great  events  of  life  for  the  fifty  years  that 
have  gone.     Not  the  collection  of  a  single  year ;  not  the 
result  of  a  single  lifetime.     Some  who  have  added  to  its 
aggregate  have  not  lived  to  witness  the  growth  to  which  the 
Library  has  attained.     Many  who  are  here  will  never  ap 
preciate  or  know  the  weary  hours  and  years  of  toil  and 
patient  endeavor  that  have  won  for  us  the  abundant  recom 
pense  of  our  present  power  and  influence. 

Do  I  exaggerate  the  value  of  our  Library  ?  Language 
is  powerless  to  express  it.  Silver  and  gold  do  not  represent 
it?  Do  you  question  its  usefulness  ?  I  give  you  back  an 
answer  from  the  ten  thousand  members  who  attest  its 
worth  and  the  hundreds  who  every  day  draw  from  its 
varied  fund.  Will  you  dare  to  contemplate  its  loss? 
Then  you  anticipate  disaster  which,  like 

"  A  malady 

Preys  on  the  heart  that  medicine  cannot  reach, 
Invincible  and  cureless." 

No  man  of  us  all  but  shrinks  from  the  simple  idea  of 
calamity  like  this.     Away,  then,  with  the  fact  which  makes 
t  possible.     [Applause.]     You,  who  come  together  here 
as  the  years  roll  on,  to  eat  and  drink  to  the  prosperity  of 
your  fair  enterprise,  have  done  yeoman's  service  in  a  fruit- 
You  think  no  labor  irksome,  no  effort  too  costly 
>  attention  close  enough  in  the  struggle  for  a  higher  and  a 

,ter  name.     You  watch-how  untiringly  !_the  Institu 
tion's  growth  !     You  do  all  that  man  can  do  to  accelerate 

1  further  it     You  do  NOT  take  the  first  and  now  most 
mportant  step  to  make  safe  and  secure  the  acquisition  you 


OF  THE  EX  OFFICERS'  UNION.  47 

already  have.     Ah  !  sir,  it  is  the  PREVENTIVE  that  we  want 
now,  and  it  is  always  cheaper  than  the  CURE. 

You  tell  me,  perhaps,  that  this  is  no  new  theme,  and  you 
remind  me  that  there  has  been  talk  enough  and  without 
result  on  just  this  very  thing.  Sir!  there  never  HAS  been 
talk  enough— there  never  WILL  be  talk  enough,  so  long  as 
a  hundred  thousand  books  lie  defenceless  and  exposed  tp 
fire ;  and  you  and  I,  and  the  multitude  of  friends  the  Library 
has,  are  false  to  our  trust  and  false  to  ourselves  so  long  as 
the  great  danger  remains,  while  safety,  absolute  and  com 
plete,  is  within  our  power.  The  Library  has  no  selfish  end. 
It  lives  in  the  interest  and  for  the  good  of  those  who  accept 
its  proffered  gifts.  It  was  made  for  societj^.  Its  whole 
purpose  is  for  society's  well-being  and  better  estate.  Let 
society  do  this  much  for  the  Library,  that  it  shall  protect 
and  make  safe  its  books. 

Believe  me,  sir,  this  is  no  idle  claim.  It  is  the  earnest 
appeal  of  a  grand  enterprise  in  extremity.  Establish  safety, 
and  you  secure  success.  Tolerate  unnecessary  danger,  and 
you  tamper  with  deplorable  failure.  Webster  once  said,  at 
Eochester,  "  If  I  thought  there  was  a  stain  on  the  remotest 
hem  of  the  garment  of  my  country  I  would  devote  my  ut 
most  labor  to  wipe  it  off."  Let  us  take  heed,  gentlemen 
guardians  of  the  Library,  that  no  spot  of  deliberate  inac 
tivity  destroy  for  ever  the  whiteness  of  our  official  robes. 
There  stands  the  creature  of  your  making.  Full  fifty 
years  to-night  its  race  has  run. 

Fairer  than  sculptured  stone, 

Nobler  than  lofty  monuments  or  gilded  dome, 

Proud  epitaph  of  years  to  come, 

Your  contribution  to  your  race. 

One  thing  only  is  undone,  and  the  hour  is  ripe  for  its  ac 
complishment.  We  have  won  a  jewel,  bright  and  re 
splendent,  as  the  price  of  a  half  century's  work.  Let  us 
hasten  to  find  a  casket  WORTHY  of  its  keeping.  [Applause.] 


48  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 

Iii  the  light  of  what  SHOULD  be,  I  seem  to  see  the  old 
supplanted  by  the  new — all  fears  and  doubts  dispelled — all 
apprehension  set  at  rest,  and  our  fond  hopes  realized  to  the 
full  in  the  security  of  a  grander  edifice  that  shall  save  and 
perpetuate  our  mother  Institution'. 

In  the  terrible  siege  in  India,  it  is  related  that  a  Scotch 
girl  raised  her  head  from  the  pallet  of  the  hospital,  and 
spoke  words  of  courage  to  the  English  hearts  around  her. 
4' I  hear  the  bag-pipes — the  Campbells  are  coming."  And 
they  said,  "Jessie,  it  is  delirium."  "No,  I  KNOW  it.  I 
heard  it  afar  off."  And  after  a  little  the  pibroch  rang  upon 
their  ears,  and  the  banner  of  England  floated  triumphantly 
over  their  heads. 

Even  so  on  this,  our  fiftieth  birth-day  eve,  I  hear  the  re 
joicing  of  a  brighter  day,  when  the  crowning  act  of  our  de 
votion  shall  be  JUSTICE  to  the  Library  we  have  made. 
[Long  continued  applause.] 

The  CHAIRMAN— "  The  Merchants  of  New-York— the 
fame  of  whose  intelligence,  energy  and  honor,  is  only  out 
shone  by  the  munificence  of  their  benefactions. " 

It  is  not  always  at  a  dinner  that  a  toast  is  given  that  con 
tains  so  much  of  truth  as  the  one  which  I  have  just  read ; 
and  it  is  still  more  rare  that  the  presiding  officer  has  the 
privilege  of  calling  upon  one  whose  whole  life  and  career 
has  been  in  accordance  with  the  sentiment  of  this  toast,  to 
respond,  as  has  been  the  case  of  the  gentleman  upon  my 
left,  the  Hon.  William  E.  Dodge.  [Applause.] 

HON.  WILLIAM  E.  DODGE. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN, —We  often  hear  of 
the  "  princely  merchants  of  New-York."  We  have  with  us, 
to-night,  the  Pnnce  of  New-York  Merchants.*— [applause]— 
and  I  came  here,  to-night,  expecting  to  listen  to  a  response 

*  Mr.  A.  T.  Stewart. 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  49 

to  this  toast  from  this  prince  of  merchants ;  and  it  was  but 
a  moment  ago  that  I  learned  that  I  was  expected  to  respond. 
I  have  been  thinking,  while  sitting  here,  and  running  my 
mind  back  over  the  fifty  years  that  have  passed  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  Mercantile  Library,  of  the  honored  names  of 
those  who  were  the  merchants  of  New- York  when  this 
Library  Association  was  formed.  It  is  well  for  us  occa 
sionally  to  stop  and  think  of  the  past,  arid  to  recall  the 
honored  names  of  those  who  have  long  gone  to  their  rest, 
and  left  such  a  heritage  to  us.  New- York,  fifty  years  ago, 
boasted  of  many  men  of  noble  stature.  My  mind  has  been 
running  along  through  South  Street,  Front  Street,  Pearl 
Street  and  Broadway.  I  have  thought  of  the  Griswolds, 
the  Howes,  the  Goody  ears ;  and  running  along  through 
Pearl  Street,  I  have  thought  of  those  honored  men  who 
were  the  jobbing  merchants  when  this  Association  was 
formed — the  Parishes  and  the  Palmers ;  and  then  along 
Broadway,  of  the  retail  merchants — Vanderbilt,  the  Haights, 
Jotham  Smith  and  Doremus :  and  among  the  hardware  men 
the  Roosevelts,  the  Yanderbilts  and  the  Kingsleys.  They 
have  all  passed  away,  and  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  their 
associates  with  them — noble  men  they  were — and  have 
given  place  to  others ;  and  the  city  has  been  passing  on ; 
and  those  who  were  the  first  members  of  this  Association — 
where  are  they  now  ?  How  few  still  linger  who  were  with 
you  in  Fulton  and  in  Cliff  Streets  !  And  how  soon  will 
they  who  now  occupy  the  places  of  the  merchants  of  New- 
York — the  high  and  prominent  positions — how  soon  will 
they  pass  away,  and  give  place  to  the  present  members  of 
your  Association.  And  when  fifty  years  more  shall  have 
passed  away,  and  some  one  shall  speak,  as  I  now  do  of  the 
merchants  of  New- York,  they  will  run  back  to  the  present 
period,  and  speak  of  those  who  are  now  active ;  but  what 
changes  will  then  have  taken  place  ?  What  is  New- York 
now  ?  What  was  New- York  then  ?  What  will  New- York 
4 


50  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 

be  when  another  half  century  shall  have  rolled  around  ? 
How  different  its  business  is  now  from  what  it  was  when 
jour  Association  was  formed.  I  was  then  a  boy  in  a  store 
in  Pearl  Street.  How  different  was  business  then  from  what 
it  is  now.  We  had  then  our  periodical  seasons  of  business, 
the  Fall  and  the  Spring.  Our  Winters  and  Summers  were 
as  nothing.  When  the  cold  chills  of  November  came, 
it  was  predicted  that  soon  the  canal  would  close ;  and  then 
down  went  half  of  the  curtains.  And  after  a  little  the 
North  Kiver  would  close,  and  then  down  went  the  curtains 
for  the  rest  of  the  Winter.  [Laughter.]  What  would 
New- York  be  to-day  without  railroads,  without  steamboats, 
without  telegraphs  ?  We  have  been  passing  through  such 
wonderful  changes  during  the  last  half  century,  that  we 
hardly  realize  what  they  are.  What  was  our  vast  country 
when  this  Mercantile  Library  was  established  ?  Chicago 
had  never  been  heard  of.  With  the  exception  of  St.  Louis, 
the  entire  West,  now  teeming  with  its  millions  of  inhab 
itants,  and  interlaced  with  its  thousands  of  miles  of  rail 
roads,  was  the  hunting-ground  of  the  Indians.  The  ele 
ments  that  have  been  at  work  during  the  past  fifty  years, 
making  New-York  what  it  is,  and  our  country  what  it  is, 
will  accumulate  and  act  with  increased  impetus  during  the 
fifty  years  to  come ;  and  no  man  can  conceive  of  what  New- 
York  City  will  be,  or  of  what  these  United  States  will  be, 
when  another  fifty  years  shall  have  rolled  around.  [Ap 
plause.]  Let  the  young  men  of  New- York  realize  their 
position  and  their  high  responsibility ;  and  let  them  pre 
pare  themselves,  by  the  opportunities  for  self-improvement 
that  are  open  to  them,  for  the  vast  responsibilities  that  will 
rest  upon  them  when  we,  who  now  fill  the  places  of  the  mer 
chants  of  New-York,  shall  have  passed  away.  [Applause.] 
THE  CHAIRMAN  :  »  The  Army  and  the  Navy  :  -our  pride 
and  boast ;  ever  ready  to  uphold  our  liberties  when  assailed 
•By  foes  within  our  borders  or  beyond  our  shores." 


OF   THE    EX-OFFICERS'    UNION.  51 

We  have  with  us  to-night  one  who,  in  all  the  positions 
which  he  has  held,  has  shown  himself  to  be  a  man,  a  Chris 
tian,  and  a  gentleman ;  and  I  shall  call  upon  him  to  respond 
to  this  toast— Major-General  McDowell,  of  the  U.  S.  Army. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  IKWIN  McDOWELL. 
Mr.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN— If  there  be  worlds 
besides  our  own — and  I  hope  there  are — where  there  are 
beings  not  unlike  ourselves,  who  not  only  profess  to  be  and 
call  themselves,  but  who  really  are  Christians,  and  who 
live  a  life  of  higher  intellectuality  than  we  do;  and  if 
such  an  one  were  to  visit  us,  and  go  abroad  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth  (I  do  not  mean  among  the  savage 
nations  of  the  earth,  but  among  the  highest  Christian 
people),  nothing,  I  fancy,  would  so  utterly  bewilder  him  as 
to  see  the  immense  preparations  made  by  all  those  nations 
for  war.  Every  resource  of  chemistry,  every  manufacture 
of  whatever  description,  throughout  the  globe — for  war 
always,  flourishes  at  the  expense  of  all  other  trades — are 
compelled  to  pay  tribute  to  this  end.  Children  are  taken 
at  an  early  age,  sent  to  school,  and  educated  to  the  highest 
point  for  that  particular  business.  Vast  numbers  of  men 
are  drawn  from  the  ordinary,  and  what  we  would  naturally 
think,  the  proper  avocations  of  life,  and  kept  apart  and  in 
training,  ready  for  the  terrible  work  of  war.  Why  must 
this  be  ?  Where  is  the  necessity  for  such  immense  prepara 
tions  for  the  destruction  of  our  fellow-men  ?  This  is  a  ques 
tion  upon  which  we  may  speculate  to  almost  any  extent.  I 
only  know,  in  my  own  experience,  that  when  I  first  entered 
the  army,  the  great  question  then  seemed  to  be  settled,  and 
that  wars  were  never  again  to  take  place.  It  was  then 
proposed  to  abolish  our  military  organization,  disband  the 
army,  and  lay  up  the  navy,  for  it  was  thought  that  the  era 
of  good  feeling  and  peace  throughout  the  world  had  been 
reached.  [Laughter.]  Then  we  had  the  Mexican  war — a  war 


52  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

without  any  necessity— a  wrong  done  to  a  weak  republic 
and  our  neighbor — which  commenced  with  a  lie :  "Whereas, 
American  blood  has  been  shed  upon  American  soil,"  which 
was  untrue;  "And  whereas,  war  exists  by  the  acts  of 
Mexico,"  which  was  untrue  ;  "Therefore,"  &c.  And  so  we 
had  that  war  ;  and  other  wars  followed.  I  do  not  speak  of 
the  Indian  wars,  which  were  brutal  acts  and  without  any 
necessity  whatever.  [Applause.]  I  have  frequently  found 
myself  in  the  position  of  warring  on  the  weak,  with  the 
strong,  or  on  the  side  of  the  wrong  against  the  right. 
Why  is  this  ?  Other  persons  than  myself  had  better  answer 
that  The  fact  probably  is,  that  wars  always  will  exist  in 
this  country  where  they  ought  never  to  exist,  and  in  other 
countries  that  profess  to  be  far  advanced  in  civilization. 
And  they  break  out  at  times  and  places  least  expected. 
You  all  recollect  how  unexpected  our  last  war  was ;  but 
it  was  not  more  so,  probably,  than  the  next  will  be.  It 
seems  therefore  to  me,  that  it  is  our  duty  to  see  to  it  that 
we  are  not  wholly  unprepared  when  the  next  war  shall 
come  upon  us.  I  have  somewhere  read  the  sentiment, 
"Woe  to  the  nation  that  is  unfitted  for  war."  A  nation 
may  have  arsenals  and  armies  and  vast  magazines,  yet  all 
these  will  avail  nothing  if  the  military  spirit  be  wanting, 
for  the  wolf  never  counteth  how  many  sheep  there  be. 
[Applause.] 

The  CHAIRMAN  :  "  The  Press  of  the  City  of  New- York: 
unsurpassed  in  intelligence,  and  unexcelled  in  enterprise 
throughout  the  world.  It  has  proved  the  Tribune  of  a  free 
people,  and  the  active  Herald  of  the  Times.  May  it  long  pre 
serve  to  us  the  Nation,  and  never  yield  to  other  agencies  its 
Post." 

We  have  with  us  to-night  a  gentleman  who,  perhaps,  is 
personally  known  to  but  few  of  us,  but  known  to  all  of  us 
by  his  works ;  and  I  have  great  confidence  that  he  will  re 
spond  to  this  toast  quite  as  ably  as  he  edits  The  Nation. 


UNION.  53 

MR.  E.  L.  GODKIR 

I  was  very  much,  and  not  altogether  agreeably  surprised, 
when  I  was  informed  that  I  should  be  expected  to  respond 
to  the  toast  just  given.  I  feel  that  I  can  only  very  inade 
quately  and  very  incompletely  speak  for  the  press  of  New- 
York.  The  branch  of  it  with  which  I  am  more  particu" 
larly  connected  can  hardly  be  said  to  fulfill  the  qualifica 
tions  which  constitute  the  strongest  claim  of  the  New -York 
Press  to  distinction — amongst  which  I  may  mention,  as, 
perhaps,  the  principal,  the  extraordinary  skill  and  enter 
prise  which  it  shows  in  the  collection  of  news.  The  weekly 
press,  of  course,  profits  by  that  ;  but  then  it  cannot  claim 
credit  for  it ;  and  it  really  looks  upon  the  process  of  collect 
ing  with  very  much  the  same  simple  wonder  as  the  rest  of 
mankind  does.  The  events  of  the  last  summer,  during  the 
European  war,  have,  perhaps,  brought  home  to  us  more 
vividly  than  ever  before,  the  full  nature  and  extent  of  the 
service  which  the  daily  press  renders  to  the  public  in  that 
particular  field  of  its  duty.  I  think  it  may  be  said  also, 
that  nobody  who  is  unfamiliar  with  the  machinery  of  the 
press,  can  really  have  an  adequate  idea  of  the  amount  of 
skill  and  ingenuity,  courage,  patience  and  energy,  that  is 
put  into  the  "  make  up  "  of  the  summary  of  the  world's 
news  which  is  laid  on  our  tables  every  morning.  To  be 
sure,  there  is  some  of  it  to  which,  perhaps,  we  are  not  fully 
entitled.  We,  perhaps,  have  a  right  to  know  all  that  Bis 
marck  knows,  or  that  Grambetta  knows,  or  Moltke  knows, 
of  the  events  of  the  war ;  but  we  hardly  have  a  right  to 
full  and  true  and  particular  details  of  battles  and  skir 
mishes  of  which  no  report  has,  or  ever  will  reach  the  Prus 
sian  or  the  French  headquarters  ;  and  we  have  occasionally, 
during  the  summer,  been  treated  to  some  such  items  of 
news.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 

The  New- York  Press  undertakes  to  do  a  great  deal  - 


54  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 


more,  I  think,  than  the  press  of  any  other  country  or  city ; 
and  the  greater  part  of  it  it  certainly  does  admirably  well. 
[Applause.]  It  incurs,  however,  the  penalty  which  usually 
attaches  to  great  enterprises  and  the  .^assuming  of  great 
responsibilities — in  laying  itself  open  to  a  great  deal  of 
fault  finding.  Notwithstanding  the  fault  finding,  it  may  be 
truthfully  said,  that  if  the  members  of  all  the  other  profes 
sions  would,  in  proportion  to  their  opportunities  and  abili 
ties,  do  as  much  for  the  purification  of  society  as  the  mem 
bers  of  the  press  do,  society  would  certainly  before  now 
have  been  rid  of  many  and  the  greatest  of  its  evils.  In 
judging  the  press,  we  have  to  remember  that  an  editor  can 
never  speak  in  a  whisper.  Whatever  he  has  to  say,  he  has 
to  say  through  a  speaking  trumpet,  and  at  the  top  of  his 
voice.  If,  for  instance,  as  sometimes  happens,  he  has  to  ex 
press  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  conduct  of  a  brother  editor, 
he  cannot  whisper  it  about  in  coteries,  as  the  lawyer  or  the 
doctor  can,  but  he  has  to  proclaim  it  from  the  housetop ; 
and  this  has  not  a  tendency  to  raise  the  press  in  the  popular 
steem. 

The  power  of  the  press  is  now  enormous,  and  the  exercise 
of  it  is  practically  unrestrained,  either  by  law,  or  by  public 
opinion.  And  I  think,  when  we  consider  this,  and  consider 
what  human  nature  is,  that  the  wonder  is  that  this  power 
should  have  been  so  little  abused,  and  has,  on  the  whole, 
been  exercised  so  much  for  good. 

I  saw,  the  other  day,  in  a  paper  for  whose  opinions  I  have 

great  respect— the  Christian  Union— an  enumeration  of  the 

wants  of  the  day,  and  there  was  set  down  as  one  of  the 

most  serious  and  pressing  of  them  all,  the  want  of  Christian 

iitors.     It  occurred  to  me  that  there  was  one  want  which 

I   more   pressing,_the   want  of  Christian   readers. 

(Applause).     I  think  that  what  the  economists  call  an  ef- 

;ual  demand  for  Christian  editors  would  be  answered  as 

lily  as  a  similar  demand  for  any  other  commodity ;  and 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION,  55 

the  only  people  who  can  create  such  a  demand,  are  Chris 
tian  readers.  This  is  simply  another  way  of  saying  that 
the  press  is  exactly  what  the  community  calls  for.  It  can 
never  be  anything  else.  And  in  the  new  civilization,  upon 
the  first  stage  of  which  we  now  find  ourselves,  the  press  will 
undoubtedly  do  the  greater  part  of  the  work  in  giving  tone 
to  society.  The  assertion  may  seem  paradoxical,  but  the 
press  will  take  its  character  and  tone  from  society.  The 
one  reacts  on  the  other.  When  we  meet  with  a  paper  which 
violates  decency,  which  obstructs  justice,  or  shields  corruption, 
or  drags  family  secrets  to  light,  it  will  not  do  to  cast  all  the 
odium  of  it  on  the  man  who  makes  an  unclean  living  by  it. 
Those  who  read  it  are  certainly  partners,  to  a  very  great  ex 
tent,  in  his  guilt.  [Applause]. 

There  is  one  other  point  connected  with  the  press  which 
is  pertinent  in  an  address  to  an  assembly  like  this,  which  is 
composed  of  gentlemen  who  are  united  by  their  interest  in 
a  great  public  library, — it  is  the  charge  which  is  so  fre 
quently  brought  against  ne  wpapers  of  being  the  enemies 
of  books.  One  hears  it  constantly  said  that  the  excessive 
growth  of  newspaper  reading  has  a  tendency  to  drive  from 
the  world  the  careful  thinkers,  and  the  close  students,  and 
the  patient  investigators,  by  destroying  in  the  public  mind 
all  taste  for,  and  all  sympathy  with  the  results  of  their 
labors.  Now,  I  think  that  if  we  look  back  during  fifty 
years,  inside  of  which  the  newspaper  press  may  be  said  to 
have  taken  its  rise,  we  shall  not  find  much  to  support  that 
charge,  but  on  the  contrary,  much  to  upset  it.  Although 
it  is  true  that  in  some  branches  of  the  arts,  other  ages  have 
been  much  more  thorough  and  pains-taking  than  our  age  is, 
nevertheless,  in  the  fields  of  science  and  literature,  which 
require  study,  and  search,  and  patient  investigation,  there 
has  been  no  age  so  thorough  as  ours ;  and,  although  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  the  growth  of  books  and  the  growth 
of  the  newspaper  press  stand  to  each  other  in  the  relation  of 


06  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

cause  and  effect,  yet  I  think  that  I  am  quite  warranted  in 
the  assertion  that  the  newspaper  is  not  the  enemy  of  books 
and  that  newspaper  reading,  instead  of  being  a  hindrance, 
is  really  a  help  to  thorough  investigation,  patient  search 
and  severe  study.  The  newspaper  press  not  only  multiplies 
readers,  but  it  certainly  does  something  towards  providing 
the  authors  of  good  books.  [Applause]. 

THE  CHAIRMAN.—"  The  College  of  the  City  of  New- 
York  :  As  the  Free  Academy,  she  educated  many  of  our 
noblest  sons.  May  her  usefulness  increase  in  equal  propor 
tion  to  the  dignity  of  her  name. " 

We  have  with  us  a  gentleman  who  is  best  known  to  us 
for  his  efforts,  and  for  his  successes  upon  the  tented  field, — 
ever  ready  to  perform  all  the  duties  which  he  was  there 
called  upon  to  perform,  manfully  and  earnestly.  Of  late  he 
has  been  called  to  the  Presidency  of  the  College  of  the  City 
of  New-York ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  fill  that  posi 
tion  with  the  same  honor,  the  same  integrity,  and  the  same 
directness  of  purpose  with  which  he  fulfilled  the  duties  of 
his  old  profession.  I  beg  to  introduce  to  you  Major  Gen 
eral  Webb. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  ALEX  AN  DEE  S.  WEBB. 
Mr.  PRESIDENT  and  GENTLEMEN:  In  the  first  place,  I 
must  thank  you  for  the  wording  of  your  toast.  And  next, 
I  thank  you  for  having  preceded  me  with  such  earnest 
men  as  Governor  Woodford,  and  your  president,  who 
has  in  such  well  rounded  sentences,  expressed  so  much 
that  gives  me  cheer  in  the  cause  I  represent. 

You  speak,  first,  of  the  Free  Academy,  and  of  its  gradu 
ates,  and  you  speak  of  them  in  the  most  flattering  terms,  as 
noble  men.  I  come  here  to-night  nearer  to  you  because  I 
have  been  so  short  a  time  with  that  institution.  I  can,  for 
that  reason,  speak  to  you  of  it  almost  as  one  cf  you,  and  as 
an  N  outsider,  but  as  one  who  has  had  time  and  opportunity 
to  thoroughly  appreciate  what  I  doubt  has  ever  been 


OF  THE   EX-OFFICEKS'   UNION".  57 

brought  before  you  in  proper  language.  I  can  speak  to  you 
of  its  graduates, — for  their  records  I  have  examined.  I  can 
point  westward,  to  the  man  who  took  the  place  of  Mitchel 
in  the  observatory.  I  can  point  to  the  seat  of  the  judge.  I 
can  point  you  to  lawyers  to  the  number  of  eighty  or  ninety ; 
to  the  clergy — ten  or  fifteen ;  to  your  architects — five  or 
six,  who  are  now  known  by  their  names,  but  who  are  not 
known  to  you  as  they  should  be, — as  the  graduates  of  that 
place.  The  institution  has  not  received  its  credit  for  them  »" 
because  I  assure  you  I  do  not  think  the  earnest  voice  of 
some  who  have  felt  its  influence  has  ever  been  raised  in 
properly  bringing  the  Institution  before  the  thinking  minds 
of  our  community.  I  am  here  as  the  President  of  that  In 
stitution.  I  am  in  the  Institution,  though  still  an  army 
officer,  and  still  a  representative- of  the  men  who  are  also 
represented  here  to-night  by  Major-Greneral  McDowell;  I 
am  the  representative  of  these  men  to  do  a  simple  duty, 
and  to  use  my  best  endeavors,  the  gift  of  the  United  States 
Government  to  me.  [Applause.] 

As  a  Free  Academy,  the  Institution  was  founded  for  a 
purpose  which  has  never,  perhaps,  been  fully  explained  to 
those  who,  as  citizens,  cannot  generally  find  the  time  to 
bestow  upon  our  educational  system  the  thought  which  we, 
who  are  most  interested  in  it,  feel  that  at  many  times  we 
have  a  right  to  demand  for  it.  It  had  a  double  object.  It 
was  not  simply  to  give  a  higher  education  to  those  who 
had  no  money  wherewith  to  buy  it,  but  its  object  also,  was 
to  give  an  incentive  to  no  less  than  sixty  thousand  youths, 
and  to  place  there  a  high  standard  of  education.  It  has 
fulfilled  its  mission  in  that  respect.  I  say  this  after  a  care 
ful  examination — that  it  has  raised  the  standard  of  educa 
tion.  And  it  has  done  this  entirely  outside,  and  independ 
ent  of  all  physical  machinery.  The  very  best  evidence  of 
this  that  could  be  given,  I  give  you  in  my  own  person, 
in  my  own  election  to  the  position  I  now  hold.  It  is  there- 


58  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

fore  to  me  a  sacred  trust — more  sacred  than  you  could  pos 
sibly  believe.  When  I  see  before  me  each  morning  eight 
hundred  representatives  of  more  than  sixty  thousand  boys, 
who  are  there,  not  only  to  receive  an  education,  but  also  to 
receive  that  which  comes  from  that  education — that  manli 
ness  and  independence,  that  feeling  that  if  you  do  right  you 
will  be  carried  on  in  the  right — I  feel  then,  and  in  such 
times,  what  my  responsibility  is. 

I  have  been  there  but  one  year  and  two  short  months.  I 
came  there  under  the  promise  that  it  should  be  made  what 
its  founders  intended  it  should  be.  It  is  sui  generis.  You 
have  no  right  without  an  examination,  to  test  it  by  any 
other  college  in  the  land.  It  stands  by  itself.  It  has  a 
special  mission.  And  that  mission  I  feel  that  it  must  and 
will  fulfil.  [Applause.]  Within  the  City  of  New- York, 
you  have  six  thousand  half  educated  boys  who  have  been 
forced  to  leave  that  institution  by  the  want  of  means  on  the 
part  of  their  parents  to  support  them.  For  the  half  educa 
tion  given  those,  it  has  seldom,  if  ever,  received  any  credit 
whatever.  But  once  within  its  walls,  once  brought  in  con 
tact  with  those  who  will  teach  them  that  be  they  rich  or 
poor,  it  is  the  battle  of  the  brain,  it  is  manliness,  it  is  in 
tegrity,  it  is  the  desire  to  do  right,  that  will  make  the  man 
—once  brought  within  its  influence,  I  believe  they  are  sent 
out  to  you  to  be  better  and  purer  men.  [Applause.] 

You  have  here  nearly  six  hundred  graduates.  I  can  give 
you  the  members  and  show  you  their  several  callings.  You 
have  now  a  Board  of  Education  which  has  determined  that 
this  college  shall  furnish  those  who  shall  be  ^prepared  to 
teach,  in  a  proper  way,  those  who  enter  our  public  schools ; 
and  I  ask  you,  as  thinking  men,  is  it  a  little,  is  it  a  small 
thing  that  we  turn  out  five  in  a  year  who  are  competent  to 
teach,  not  only  with  the  head,  but  with  the  heart  ?  Is  it  a 
small  thing  that  you  are  thus  enabled  to  place  within  our 
educational  system  five  or  ten  young  men  per  year,  who  are 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  59 

taught  to  believe  that  in  educating  men  there  is  a  heart,  and 
a  soul,  and  a  fitness  to  the  end  that  must  go  with  it  ?  That 
has  been  done  within  the  last  year ;  and  they  are  now  erect 
ing  upon  the  college  grounds  a  school  costing  the  miserable 
sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars,  which  is  only  begged  from 
the  funds,  in  order  that  the  quality  of  those  young  men 
may  there  be  tested  to  see  if  they  are  fit  to  be  sent  out  as 
educators  of  the  young.  I  assure  you  that  a  hundred  thou 
sand  a  year  would  help  you  as  much  in  that  respect,  as  in 
any  way  that  you  could  spend  it. 

I  am  glad  that  I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  express  to 
you  the  hopes  and  wishes  which  I  cherish  for  the  Institu 
tion  with  which  I  have  been  for  a  short  time  connected. 
[Applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN.— "  The  Clergy  of  New- York— distin 
guished  pre  eminently  for  commending  Christ's  truth  to  the 
common  people,  and  embodying  his  spirit  of  humanity  in 
works  of  wide-spread  beneficence." 

Last  night,  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  you  were  aware  of 
the  many  excuses  that  were  received  by  the  president  of 
the  Association  from  the  speakers  that  were  expected  to  be 
present,  and  that  in  the  stress  we  laid  violent  hands  upon 
a  gentleman  whom  we  had  invited  merely  as  one  of  the 
hearers.  He  made,  I  doubt  not  you  will  all  agree  with 
me,  one  of  the  most  telling  speeches  of  the  evening.  We 
have  laid  hands  upon  him  again,  and  shall  ask  him  to  re 
spond  to  the  toast  which  has  been  given — the  Rev.  Henry 
C.  Potter,  of  Grace  Church.  [Applause.] 

EEV.  H.  C.  POTTER. 

MR.  PRESIDENT — I  was  very  much  at  home  last  night  in 
taking  the  unprepared  service  that  I  did,  because  of  my 
past  relations  to  the  merchants7  clerks  of  this  and  other 
cities.  I  am  not  so  much  at  home  to-night  in  speaking  for 
the  clergy  of  New- York.  [Laughter.]  I  am  but  a  junior 


60  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 


among  the  juniors ;  and  when  I  am  confronted  at  the  op 
posite  end  of  the  table  with  the  distinguished  divine  who 
represents  the  Madison  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  [ap 
plause,]  I  may  well  cast  about  for  some  such  remote  ex 
cuse  for  action,  as  I  heard  an  Irishman  relate  the  other  day, 
•of  a  friend,  who  chanced  to  meet  the  great  poet  to  whom  I 
alluded  last  evening,  and  said  to  him  :  "Mr.  Longfellow, 
might  I  shake  your  hand,  sir  ?"  and  in  excuse  for  the  lib 
erty,  as  he  regarded  it,  he  added :  "  Sir,  I  have  got  a 
brother  that  is  a  pote — and  a  drunkard,  too  !"  [Laughter.] 

It  is  only  as  one  of  the  most  insignificant  of  this  great 
brotherhood,  and  the  youngest  of  them  all,  that  I  under 
take  at  all  to  respond  to  your  toast  to-night.  And  yet  if 
any  words  ought  to  bring  a  clergyman  to  his  feet,  they  are 
the  very  kindly  words  in  which  you  have  spoken  of  that 
vocation  here  to-night;  and  surely,  in  the  face  of  them, 
the  clergy  ought  gratefully  to  remember,  and  I  as  one  of 
them  do  gratefully  remember,  and  bear  testimony  to  the 
large-hearted  and  generous  co-operation  in  every  work  of 
fellowship  which  the  clergy  have  had  from  the  truly  princely 
class  whom  you  represent  What  would  be  the  philan 
thropies  of  New- York  without  the  purses  of  the  merchants 
of  New- York?  It  is  to  me  one  of  the  most  cheering  facts 
connected  with  the  ministry  in  New- York,  as  I  may  speak 
from  my  short  experience  of  it  here,  that  wherever  there  is 
a  good  cause,  a  cause  that  has  a  bottom  to  it,  and  that  is 
doing  a  direct  and  practical  work,  there  is  no  material  diffi 
culty  in  getting  the  money  to  sustain  it.  [Applause.] 
Sometimes,  it  is  true,  our  merchants  are  impatient  of  the 
constant  interruptions  of  this  sort  that  meet  them  at  their 
business;  and  sometimes,  as  I  heard  the  other  day,  they  re 
ceive  those  interruptions  somewhat  irreverently,  if  not  pro 
fanely  ;  but,  as  the  incident  I  am  about  to  relate  will  show, 
•even  that  irreverence  generally  finds  its  end  in  their  habit- 
ual  generosity.  I  was  told  the  other  day  of  a  somewhat 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  61 

persistent,  and  not  very  discreet  clergyman  from  the  West, 
who,  full  of  the  college  which  he  represented,  went  down, 
into  Wall  Street  and  pushed  his  way  into  a  banking  house, 
and,  without  invitation,  into  the  back  counting-room,  andr 
without  a  word  of  preface,  stuck  under  the  eyes  of  an  en- 
grossed  banker  there  his  subscription  book,  with  the  sim 
ple  question  :  "  Sir,  what  will  you  give  to College  ?'r 

It  was  not  very  surprising  (though  it  was  certainly  not  very 
reverent),  that  he  answered  as  he  did — "  Sir,  I  will  give 

exactly   one   ."   I  leave  you  to   fill  in   the   word. 

[Laughter.]  The  clergyman  was  a  methodical  man ;  he 
took  his  book  to  the  corner  of  the  room  and  wrote  Mr. 
John  —  — ,  one  d —  — ."  [Great  laughter.]  He  went 
down  the  street  and  took  his  book  into  another  counting- 
room  ;  and  you  can  imagine  the  sort  of  enthusiasm  which 
that  sort  t>f  a  subscription  called  out  there.  Persons  who 
saw  it,-  said :  "  Sir,  I  will  give  you  twenty-five  dollars  for 
that  joke,  it  is  worth  it."  [Laughter.]  He  went  to  another 
place  and  got  a  still  better  subscription.  [Renewed  laughter.] 
The  story  travelled  down  the  street,  as  stories  do  travel 
down  Wall  Street — and  presently  it  came  back  to  the  spot 
where  it  had  originated,  and  the  merchant  who  had  made 
the  impatient  and  profane  answer,  found  it  was  going  up 
and  down  Wall  Street  with  very  productive  results.  He 
followed  this  astute  -and  clever  parson  from  the  West,  and 
said  to  him  :  "  Sir,  this  is  a  very  good  joke  of  yours,  but  it 
has  gone  quite  far  enough,  and  I  want  to  ask  you  what  you 
mean  by  putting  my  name  on  your  book  in  connection  with 
such  a  profane  expression ?"  "I  mean,"  said  the  clergy 
man,  "  that  when  I  came  from  the  far  West,  my  bishop  told 
me  to  put  down  on  my  subscription  book  every  subscrip 
tion  I  should  receive,  however  small.  [Laughter  and  ap 
plause.]  I  have  simply  obeyed  his  directions."  "Very 
well,  sir,"  said  the  merchant,  "  you  have  got  the  better  of 
me  this  time.  I  am  willing  to  pay  for  this  bit  of  humor," 


62  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

and  he  offered  the  clergyman  twenty -five  dollars  to  erase 
the  objectionable  subscription.  "  No,  indeed,"  said  the 
clergyman,  u  that  subscription  is  worth  a  great  deal  more 
than  twenty -five  dollars."  [Great  laughter.]  But  to  make 
a  long  story  short,  the  end  of  it  was — and  I  tell  the  story  to 
illustrate  the  generosity  of  merchants  in  all  matters  of  be 
nevolence — the  merchant  who  had  welcomed  the  agent 
with  such  profanity,  handed  him  a  check  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  [Applause.] 

This  is  an  illustration,  so  far  as  I  know  them,  of  the 
habits  of  the  class  to  which  you  belong,  and  to  which  it  is 
the  pride  of  my  life  that  I  was  once  privileged  for  a  short 
time  to  belong. 

What  is  a  merchant,  unless  he  undertakes  to  exert  upon 
the  community,  through  his  calling,  just  such  an  influence 
for  good    as   your  library  undertakes    to    bear  upon  it! 
What  is  the  merchant,  in  other  words,  without  the  advan 
tages   of  culture?     What  but  a  mere  accumulator,  who, 
when  he  comes  to  the  end  of  his  busy  and  engrossed  life, 
and  dies  out  of  it,  ceases  to  be  of  interest  to  the  world,  save 
as  his  effects  create  an  interest— so  that  the  world  forgets 
the  man  in  merely 'asking  the  gross  and  material  question 
—•'What  did  he  leave  behind  him?"     On  the  contrary, 
the  merchant  whose  mind  has  been  enlightened  and  ele 
vated  and  enlarged  by  culture,  who  has  learned  to  love  let 
ters,  and  through  them  to  think  of  something  else  than 
mere  accumulation— he   becomes   the  large-hearted   bene 
factor  in  every  good  work.     He  founds  the  noble  institu 
tions  of  charity,  and  of  literature,  and  of  benevolence  which 
are  destined  one  day  to  be  the  glory  of  this  great  cornmer. 
cial  city,  and  keep   potent,   as  I  believe  can  be  done  in 
scarcely  any  other  way,  the   enriching  and  ennobling  in 
fluences  of  the  institution  which  you  represent.  [Applause.] 
I^thank  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  privilege  of  having 
responded  to  the  kindly  sentiment  which  you  have  given 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  63 

in  behalf  of  the  calling  which  I  here,  in  part,  represent.  I 
desire  no  better  alliance  in  the  great  work  which  the  clergy 
are  called  upon  to  do  in  the  City  of  New- York,  than  to  be 
re-enforced  by  your  merchants  from  day  to  day,  and  not  only 
backed  up  by  them,  but,  as  I  heard  a  clever  parson  say  the 
other  day,  when  making  a  strong  appeal  in  behalf  of  a  good . 
cause— but  "  green-backed  up  "  in  behalf  of  all  good  works. 
[Applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN.—  To  almost  every  other  toast  given  this 
evening,  one  response  is  enough,  but  so  important  a  toast 
as  that  which  I  have  just  proposed,  I  think,  will  bear  a  few 
words  from  our  venerable  and  much-esteemed  friend,  Dr. 
Adams.  [Applause.] 

KEY.  DR.  ADAMS. 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you,  Mr.  President  (although, 
as  you  yourself  know,  this  is  altogether  unexpected  upon 
my  part),  for  the  very  kindly  manner  with  which  my  name 
has  been  received,  and  this  fresh  reference  to  the  profession 
of  which  I  am  permitted  to  be  an  humble  representative. 

In  some  parts  of  the  world,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  con 
tinent  of  Europe,  men  of  action,  of  enterprise,  men  of  the 
world,  as  we  say,  are  in  direct  antagonism  with  churchmen  or 
clergymen,  not  for  the  reason  which  I  suppose  none  of  them 
hold — that  Christianity  has  no  affinities  to  enterprise — but 
because,  unhappily,  in  some  parts  of  the  world,  those  who 
represent  the  Church,  have  put  themselves  in  opposition  to 
liberty  and  to  progress  and  to  enterprise.  Most  fortunately, 
the  reverse  of  that  is  true  in  our  own  country.  And  the 
very  fact,  that  on  an  occasion  like  this,  you  have  framed  a 
sentiment  in  honor  of  the  clergy,  shows  that  in  your  appre 
hension,  the  clergy  are  the  allies  and  the  patrons  of  all  that 
is  liberal,  and  refined,  and  healthful  in  human  society. 
[Applause.] 

My  eloquent  friend  and  brother,  Mr.  Potter,  knows  that 


64  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

we  are  accustomed  to  speak   from  texts.      He  has  got 
through,  however,  most  happily,  without  one  being  given  to 
him ;  but  if  I  were  to  fall  upon  a  text  (and  I  always  want 
some  little  plank  to  float  upon  when  I  am  thrown  upon  the 
water  in  this  way),  I  should  say  that  your  very  name,  the 
Mercantile  Library  Association — those  two  words,  joined  in 
that  connection — was  a  suggestive  theme.      There  was  a 
time  when  the  merchants  were  classed  by  themselves,  just 
as  the  clergy  were  classed  by  themselves  ;  and  the  different 
classes  of  society  were  distinguished  by  some  peculiarity 
in   dress.      The   different   classes   then  had   rivalries  and 
antagonisms.     We  are  all  familiar — for  books  have  been  full 
of  them  from  the  time  of  the  old  classics — with  the  pictures 
representing  the  choices  which  men  were  to  make  in  life. 
It  has  been  a  very  favorite  mode  of  representing  life  to  pic 
ture  the  world  as  a  mart  of  commerce,  where  we  have  dif 
ferent  objects  to  select  from,  and  where  the  objects  them 
selves  are  placed  in  rivalry  or  antagonism.     It  was  sup 
posed  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  a  man  in  making 
a  choice,  to  confine  himself  to  one  particular  class.     Mer 
chants,  for  instance,  were  not  supposed  to  have  any  affinity 
for  literary  pursuits,  or  to  have  any  interest  in  books  of  any 
kind,  except  such  as  are  peculiar  to  counting-rooms,  and 
are  called   ledgers.      But  here  you  bring  merchants  and 
books  together  in  the  Mercantile  Library,  which  is  a  col 
lection  of  books  in  the  hands  and  for  the  use  of  merchants. 
It  is  a  libel  that  there  is  anything  unreconcilable  in  these 
pursuits ;  and  the  names  that  we  might  bring  together,  of 
such  men  as  Halleck,  and  Bryant,  and  Sprague— which  are 
just  as  familiar  in  the  banking  house,  and  on  the  exchange, 
as  they  are  in  connection  with  the  Muses— are  a  complete 
refutation  of  the  statement  that  these  pursuits  are  irrecon 
cilable      [Applause.] 

I^see  sometimes  on  the  doors  of  counting-rooms—"  No 
admittance  except  on  business,"  but  I  do  not  believe  that 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  65 

that  is  the  right  thing  for  a  merchant  to  put  upon  his  fore 
head.  It  was  once,  perhaps,  but  it  is  not  now.  I  believe 
that  there  is  something  liberalizing  in  the  pursuits  of  the 
merchant;  and  I  believe  also,  that  in  the  activity  of  a 
commercial  metropolis  there  is  everything  favorable  to  in 
tellectual  development,  if  men  did  but  know  it.  I  think  it 
is  a  great  deal  easier  to  give  direction  to  a  sparkling  brook 
than  it  is  to  put  motion  into  a  dead,  stagnant  pool.  To 
young  men  who  are  desirous  of  improving  intellectually, 
and  of  making  advance  in  everything  that  is  noble,  I  should 
say,  come  to  the  city ;  stay  not  in  the  torpor  and  apathy  of 
the  country.  For  everything  that  is  good,  intellectually, 
morally,  and  spiritually,  give  me  the  life  and  the  activity  of 
the  city.  [Applause.] 

It  has  been  the  attempt  of  philosophers — oftentimes  in  a 
somewhat  facetious  way — to  give  a  definition  of  man  as 
an  animal,  that  would  distinguish  from  other  animals. 
Burke  gave  this  definition :  that  man  was  an  animal  that 
cooked  his  food ;  to  which  a  distinguished  man  replied  that 
was  hardly  a  correct  definition,  because  there  were  some 
animals  that  subjected  their  food  to  a  process  somewhat 
similar  to  the  culinary  process.  Adam  Smith  gave  this 
definition  :  that  "man  was  an  animal  that  made  bargains." 
You  never  knew  one  dog  to  exchange  a  bone  with  another 
dog.  Now,  for  a  man  to  devote  himself,  as  his  profession 
for  life,  to  this  matter  of  exchanging  and  bartering,  and  do 
it  in  a  way  that  shall  leave  his  name  and  his  credit  immacu 
late,  and  still  increase  his  material  possessions,  is  a  great 
art.  Why,  if  my  recollection  is  right,  mercor,  mercari,  had 
some  connection  with  old  Mercury,  and  Mercury  was  the 
prince  of  thieves ;  and  I  think  there  is  some  affinity  be 
tween  the  two.  There  are  some  men  who,  in  this  matter  of. 
bartering,  take  undue  advantages,  which  are  not  much  to 
their  honor  or  reputation.  One  of  that  class  said  once  to 
Dr.  Johnson — that  hater  of  everything  that  was  mean—  "  I 
6 


66  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 


must  live  somehow."  Johnson  replied,  "  Sir,  I  deny  your 
premises;  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  you  should  live 
somehow  !"  [Applause.]  What  is  there  that  we  should 
honor  more  than  we  do  commercial  honor?  That  word 
"credit,"  what  a  beautiful  etymology  it  has  —  credo,  "I 
believe  him  ;"  "  I  trust  him."  That  is  the  meaning  of  the 
word.  How  worthy  of  honor  is  that  man  who,  in  all  his 
transactions  with  his  fellow-men,  in  bartering,  gaining 
striving  and  acquiring,  maintains  a  spotless  honor  and 
secures  a  credit  such  that  one  .  stroke  of  his  pen  would  be 
recognized  on  every  exchange  in  the  world  ;  a  credit  that 
would  load  ships  in  distant  parts  of  the  globe  !  If  there  is 
not  something  in  that  that  is  noble  and  magnanimous  — 
something  that  is  chivalric  —  then  I  do  not  know  who 
there  is  entitled  to  the  name  and  honor  of  chivalry. 

I  have  had  a  little  intercourse  with  the  merchants  of  New- 
York  now  during  a  pastorate  of  thirty-six  years  in  this  city  ; 
and  I  heartily  respond  to  everything  that  my  friend,  Dr. 
Potter  has  said.  I  never  yet  knew  a  good  thing,  a  really 
good  thing,  that  would  commend  itself  to  the  sound  judg 
ment  of  men,  and  connected  with  morals  or  religion,  for 
which  I  could  not  find  a  prompt  and  generous  response  to 
an  appeal  in  its  behalf  from  the  merchants  of  the  City  of 
New-  York.  [Applause.]  And  at  this  time,  when  young  men 
are  making  their  plans  for  life,  I  do  not  know  an  opportu 
nity  more  auspicious  and  more  hopeful,  for  one  who  wishes 
to  make  his  mark  in  the  world,  than  a  merchant  who  is  truly 
magnanimous  in  his  purposes,  honorable  in  his  intentions, 
correct  m  his  dealings  with  his  fellow-men,  liberal  in  his 
pursuits,  who  knows  that  there  are  other  books  besides  the 
ledger,  and  who  reads  them,  and  who  is  projecting  (as  men 
at  this  board  have  been,  and  as  their  successors,  I  know, 
will  do)  things  which  are  to  be  permanent  decorations  of 
our  city,  in  the  interest  of  learning,  philanthropy,  and  re 
ligion.  [Applause.] 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'   UNION.  67 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  "  The  Clinton  Hall  Association— an 
enduring  memorial  of  munificence  on  the  part  of  our  mer 
chants:  wisely  bestowed  and  abundantly  rewarded."  [Ap 
plause.] 

In  regard  to  the  person  whom  I  intend  to  call  upon  to 
respond  to  this  toast,  I  am  a  good  deal  in  the  position  of 
the  boys  who,  seeing  an  old  man  who  was  noted  for  his  pro 
fanity,  and  who  had  a  load  of  stone  upon  his  cart,  pulled 
the  tail-board  out,  and  in  going  up  hill,  of  course,  the 
stones  were  all  scattered.  The  boys  ran  up  the  hill,  ex 
pecting  to  hear  a  volley  of  profanity  from  this  old  man  at 
this  mishap  which  had  occurred.  But  when  the  old  man 
saw  what  had  occurred,  he  looked  on  very  complacently 
and  said :  "  There  is  no  use ;  words  cannot  express  my 
feelings  on  this  occasion." 

I  know  I  speak  the  feeling  of  all  of  you  when  I  say,  in 
regard  to  our  friend,  Isaac  H.  Bailey,  that  no  words  are 
necessary  in  introducing  him  to  you  this  evening.  [Ap 
plause.] 

MR.  ISAAC  H.  BAILEY. 

I  feel  it  a  great  honor  to  be  asked  to  respond  in  behalf 
of  the  merchants  of  New- York  who  contributed  to  the 
building  up  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association — that 
roll  of  honor  containing  the  names  of  men  who  in  their 
lifetime  have  distinguished  themselves  by  recognizing  the 
literary  wants  of  the  young  merchants  of  New- York.  I  am 
particularly  happy  in  being  here  to-night,  on  the  occasion 
of  our  fiftieth  anniversary,  and  when,  after  having  passed 
around  the  hat  so  often,  we  are  at  length  in  the  position  of 
respectable  gentlemen  of  means  and  resources,  who  give 
dinner  parties  and  ask  no  favors.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 
I  am  entirely  satisfied  that  we  should  never  have  organized 
this  Association  of  the  Alumni,  if  we  had  not  been  in  that 
situation  of  perfect  independence  which  made  our  guests 


(58  FIFTH   ANNIVERSARY 

entirely  sure  that  they  would  not  be  called  upon  for  contri 
butions. 

My  friend,  Mr.  Camp,  in  wording  this  toast,  I  am  happy 
to  say,  has  not  connected  this  Association  with  those  reli- 
o-ious  and  other  benevolent  institutions  which  throw  out 
such  broad  hints  to  wealthy  citizens  that  somebody  will 
profit  by  their  death,  by  printing  upon  their  programme  a 
form  of  bequest  to  the  association  which  they  represent,  and 
t,hus  throwing  out  a  very  unpleasant  idea  to  those  gentle 
men — of  whom  there  may  be  some  here — who  may  be  con 
templating  a  retirement  from  life.  [Laughter.] 

It  is  a  sad  thought,  and  one  that  has  always  been  sug 
gestive  of  very  unpleasant  ideas  to  me,  that  a  man  should 
be  regarded  as  more  profitable  when  in  his  tomb  than  in 
his  life  time.  Happily,  we  have  around  us  those  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  in  their  life  time,  during  'their  ma 
ture  years,  and  while  they  were  in  the  full  glow  of  health, 
by  remembering  the  literary  necessities  of  their  fellows,  and 
contributing  most  nobly  to  them.  When  we  have  our 
Stewarts,  our  Coopers,  our  Dodges  in  our  midst,  we  need 
not  look  for  the  prosperity  of  our  institutions  in  obituary 
notices.  [Applause.] 

I  have  a  very  pleasant  memory  of  my  connection  with 
the  Library  Association  in  its  earlier  days,  and  I  remember 
(and  perhaps  some  of  you  are  also  sufficiently  aged  to  re 
member),  that  when  I  came  to  the  City  of  New- York,  many 
years  ago,  I  intimated  to  my  confidential  friends,  that  there 
was  one  round  upon  the  ladder  of  fame  to  which  I  wished 
to  aspire — and  that  was  the  presidency  of  the  Mercantile 
Library  Association.  [Laughter.]  It  cost  me  several 
weary  years  of  toiling  ambition  to  attain  that  proud  height, 
but  having  attained  it,  I  assure  you  that  the  measure  of  my 
ambition  was  full ;  and  I  have  since  looked  with  sympa 
thizing  pity  upon  those  who  were  struggling  for  that  proud 
position.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  I  am  entirely  willing 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  69 

that  my  honors  should  end  with  the  distinguished  office 
which  I  held  then.  Although  I  must  confess,  that  not 
being  gifted  with  foresight  to  see  what  would  come,  I  did 
not,^  when  I  was  president  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Asso 
ciation,  and  looked  over  the  figures  of  my  annual  report, 
which  presented  an  aggregate  of  ten  thousand  per  year  of 
income,  ever  contemplate  that  I  should  witness  the  period 
(and  perhaps  I  should  not  if  I  had  not  advanced  to  a  serene 
old  age),  [great  laughter,]  when  its  resources  would  be  fifty 
thousand  dollars  per  year,  and  its  increase  of  books  twelve 
thousand  volumes  annually.  I  expect  on  the  arrival  of  our 
one  hundredth  celebration,  to  be  here  [renewed  laughter,] 
and  congratulate  you  upon  the  realization  of  the  dreams  of 
our  president— and  all  obtained  out  of  that  sinking  fund 
which  the  Trustees  of  the  Clinton  Hall  Association  hold 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Mercantile  Library.  [Applause  and 
laughter.] 

It  is  the  custom,  I  believe,  of  every  man  who  responds  to 
a  sentiment,  to  ignore  the  particular  subject  to  which  he  is 
asked  to  respond ;  and  I  believe  that  I  have  been  faithful 
to  that  part  of  the  programme,  and  yet  I  would  like  to  say, 
in  behalf  of  this  Clinton  Hall  Association,  one  single  word  : 
that,  having  been  created  out  of  and  being  the  outgrowth 
of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  having  been,  in  fact, 
elected  the  guardian  of  that  Association,  it  has  found  itself 
the  guardian  of  a  very  healthy  and  a  very  wholesome  ward, 
which  has  occasioned  little  trouble,  and  which  continues  to 
thrive  by  the  aid  of  its  excellent  guardianship.  I  am 
pleased  in  being  able  to  state  that  in  all  the  annual  reports 
of  the  Mercantile  Library  Association  which  I  have  read 
since  the  year  1841,  there  has  been  one  very  prosaic  and 
yet  very  interesting  sentence,  and  that  is,  "  The  Library  is 
free  from  debt."  Such  a  remarkable  ambition  has  been  pre 
sented  among  its  officers  to  bring  that  sentence  into  each 
annual  report,  that  I  remember,  on  one  occasion,  when  I 


70  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

was  asking  a  president  how  he  was  going  to  state  the  fact 
to  be  in  that  respect,  and  whether  he  was  going  to  give  us 
our  grand  old  sentence,  "  The  Library  is  free  from  debt,"  he 
replied,  "  Yes ;  we  will  report  that,  if  we  have  to  borrow 
the  money."  [Applause.] 

Gentlemen,  I  have  been  favored  by  your  Chairman  with 
a  telegraphic  message,  received  to-day  by  the  cable,  from  a 
former  friend  of  the  Association,  now  somewhat  lukewarm 
with  regard  to  all  American  institutions,  but  who,  neverthe 
less,  has  been  very  eminent  in  literature: 

"  Well,  you  have  succeeded.  Somebody  is  at  the  head  of 
the  heap.  See  what  you  can  make  of  him.  I  have  no  faith 
in  America,  and  no  faith  in  fools. 

"Yours  respectfully,  T.  CAKLYLE." 

But,  gentlemen,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  stating  to  you 
that  there  is  a  liberal  Member  of  Parliament  here  to-night 
who  has  faith  in  America,  who  has  faith  in  ideas,  and  who 
is  thoroughly  up  to  our  American  institutions.  I  am  going 
to  ask  you,  with  the  permission  of  the  chair  to  join  with  me 
in  drinking  the  health  of  Mr.  Mundella.  [Applause.] 

MR.  A.  J.  MUNDELLA  (who  was  greeted  with  cheers), 
said: 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN  and  GENTLEMEN — The  Vice-President 
has  proposed  a  very  irregular  toast,  and  one,  indeed,  for 
which  I  am  entirely  unprepared,  but  for  which  I  must  at 
least  thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart.  I  hope  the 
kindly  sentiments  he  uttered  with  respect  to  me,  had  more 
foundation  in  fact  than  had  the  cable  message  which  he  has 
read.  [Laughter.]  I  trust  that  my  countryman,  Carlyle, 
although  he  does  say  some  rude  things,  has  not  been  guilty 
of  sending  such  a  message  as  that.  [Applause  and 
laughter.]  At  any  rate,  I  can  safely  say  that  few  things 
hare  pleased  me  more  since  I  have  been  among  you  than 


OF  THE   EX-OFFICEKS'   UNION.  71 

to  see  the  results  of  your  great  struggle,  your  recent  war. 
My  friend,  Major-Greneral  McDowell,  lias  made  some 
very  useful  reflections  on  the  real  calamity  which  wars  gen 
erally  bring  upon  a  nation  ;  and  he  almost  proved  to  my 
mind  that,  although  he  is  a  good  soldier,  he  is  a  better 
Christian,  and  is  somewhat  in  doubt,  in  his  own  conscience, 
of  the  use  of  his  profession.  But  there  have  been  few  wars 
— none  that  I  can  remember — that  show  such  useful  results 
as  yours  has  done.  [Applause.]  I  think  it  one  of  the 
most  gratifying  features  that  I  have  ever  witnessed,  and  one 
that  I  never  witness  without  a  great  deal  of  admiration— 
that  the  negro,  who  we  said  was  not  a  man  and  a  brother 
(and  as  to  whom  I  confess  I  brought  with  me  to  this  coun 
try  some  of  my  English  prejudices,  although  I  have  long 
been  an  emancipationist),  has,  after  all,  distinguished  him 
self  in  this  country,  by  an  industry  and  by  orderly  habits, 
which  not  all  the  white  men  on  our  side  of  the  globe  dis 
play.  [Applause.] 

Whenever  my  countrymen  return  from  America,  they 
always  speak  of  its  splendid  hospitality.  I,  too,  shall  have 
to  sing  the  same  song  when  I  return.  I  can  hardly  thank 
Americans  sufficiently  for  the  kindly  welcome  which  I 
have  received ;  for  I  came  among  them  a  few  months  ago 
almost  an  entire  stranger,  yet  everywhere  have  been  re 
ceived  with  the  kindest  welcome,  to  which  no  merits  of 
mine  entitle  me. 

I  feel,  as  I  know  you  feel,  that  we  are  all  of  one  stock; 
and  that  there  ought  to  be  no  dividing  lines  between  us". 
[Applause.]  It  is  true  that  I  am  a  "  liberal  member  of 
Parliament,"  as  has  been  stated;  but  that  phrase  means 
something  that  you  in  this  country  have  hardly  yet  come 
to  realize.  We  represent  the  people  of  England — the  men 
who  were  your  allies  throughout  your  great  struggle  ;  the 
men  who  stood  by  you  in  spite  of  poverty,  and  famine  and 


72  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

suffering ;  and  who  were  always  true  to  you,  notwithstand 
ing  the  inducements  and  allurements  presented  to  them  to 
be  the  contrary.  [Applause.] 

I  am  myself  a  large  employer  of  labor  (my  trade  was1  the 
custom  trade),  and  I  saw  my  workmen  suffering  for  years 
in  consequence  of  your  war.  I  never  found  a  man  among 
them — and  I  tried  them  again  and  again — who  would  say 
one  word  for  the  South.  Notwithstanding  all  they  had  to 
undergo,  nothing  could  induce  them  to  be  untrue  to  their 
faith  in  your  principles.  [Cheers.] 

There  has  been  a  great  revolution  in  England,  although 
it  has  been  a  revolution  without  bloodshed.  The  people 
have  been  permitted  to  share  the  political  power.  Two 
hundred  new  and  "  liberal "  members  of  Parliament 
were  recently  elected.  The  members  of  the  aristocratic 
party  did  not  dare  to  meet  that  Parliament,  but  resigned  be 
fore  it  was  called  together ;  and  we  have  now  in  our  gov 
ernment  such  men  as  no  government  in  England  has  ever 
had  before,  and  among  them,  and  foremost,  Gladstone, 
Bright,  Forster,  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  Tradesmen  and  peers 
are  now  working  side  by  side  for  the  amelioration  and 
emancipation  of  their  country.  [Cheers.] 

I  must  confess  that,  although  you  treat  me  so  well  as  an 
individual,  I  cannot  but  perceive  that  you  do  not  cherish 
the  same  kindly  feeling  towards  my  country.  It  would  be 
idle  in  me  to  attempt  to  disguise  that  there  are  grounds  of 
discontent  and  disagreement  between  your  country  and 
•mine.  But  I  cannot  believe,  I  will  not  believe — and  every 
thing  that  I  have  seen  and  heard  compels  me  to  the  con 
trary — that  the  sentiments  which  I  find  reported  in  the 
morning  papers  as  the  expression  of  an  honorable  member 
of  your  national  legislature  (General  Butler)  are  the  senti 
ments  of  the  people  of  America.  I  do  not  believe  that  you 
desire  the  humiliation  of  my  country,  or  that  you  desire  to 
go  to  war  with  it.  I  believe  that  such  a  catastrophe  would 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  73 

be  one  of  the  greatest  that  could  afflict  mankind.  I  may 
say,  as  one  who  was  and  is  sincerely  and  staunchly  your 
friend,  that  in  whatever  was  done,  or  neglected  to  be  done, 
whereby  you  were  wronged,  my  countrymen  are  prepared 
to  do  you  right,  to  the  uttermost  farthing.  [Cheers.] 

I  cannot  believe,  I  will  not  believe,  that  the  intelligent 
citizens  of  this  great  continent  desire  to  throw  back  the 
march  of  progress  in  my  country  by  inflicting  upon  the  mil 
lions  of  newly  enfranchised  workmen  of  England  the  hor 
rors  of  an  internecine  war.  I  do  not  believe  that  such  is 
the  real  sentiment  of  the  people  of  this  country.  And  I 
will  say  further,  that  the  English  people  rejoice  in  your 
prosperity  ;  we  glory  in  your  success  ;  we  do  not  envy  it ; 
we  feel  it  as  reflecting  pride  and  satisfaction  upon  our  own 
country.  I  believe  in  all  I  have  heard  to-night  as  to  what 
may  be  your  future.  You  cannot  realize  what  your  future 
will  be.  I  sincerely  trust  that  all  your  hopes  and  aspira 
tions  may  be  realized.  When  I  presented  myself  to  my 
constituency,  in  opposition  to  the  man  whose  words  rankle 
deepest  in  your  bosoms,  I  appealed  to  them  on  the  ground 
that  our  natural  allies  were  the  men  who  spoke  our  own 
tongue,  and  were  our  own  kindred.  Their  appreciation  of 
these  sentiments  is  shown  by  the  fact  of  my  election  over 
one  of  the  ablest  men  of  my  country,  by  a  majority  of  thou 
sands. 

I  trust  God  will  prevent  any  such  misfortune  to  the  peo 
ple  of  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  as  I  see  foreshadowed  in 
the  article  in  this  morning's  papers.  I  say  that  any  man, 
either  on  our  side,  or  on  yours,  who  desires  to  foment  a  war 
between  people  speaking  the  same  language,  trusting  in  the 
same  Bible,  having  the  same  authors  and  traditions,  and  the 
same  sentiments  and  aspirations,  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
securing  a  political  triumph,  is  guilty  of  the  greatest  crime 
under  heaven  !  I  trust  you  will  forgive  me  for  speaking 
thus  earnestly.  I  hope  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  the 


74  FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

whole  English-speaking  race  will  be  confederated  in  one 
great  bond  of  union ;  and  if  ever  we  do  see  that  day,  it  will 
put  an  end  to  war  and  bloodshed '  throughout  the  world. 
[Long  continued  applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN. — Our  last  regular  toast  of  the  evening, 
is  one  with  which  you  will  all  cordially  sympathise : 

"  Woman — the  only  privileged  class  in  our  land ;  her 
rule  is  not  disputed,  because  she  derives  her  power  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed." 

We  have  with  us  an  ex-Lieutenant-Grovernor  of  the  State 
of  New- York,  who  will  respond  to  this  toast — the  Hon.  Ly- 
man  Tremaine. 

MR.  TREMAINE. 

GENTLEMEN — Your  chairman  has  called  upon  me,  a  com 
parative  stranger  to  the  merchants  of  New- York,  and  a 
non-resident  of  the  city,  to  respond  to  the  toast  in  honor 
of  woman.  If  you  were  upon  the  witness  stand,  I  should 
be  inclined  to  ask  you  a  question,  and  that  would  be  in 
the  language  of  Artemus  Ward,  in  his  address  to  the  six 
teen  widows  of  a  deceased  Mormon,  who  were  all  making 
love  to  him  at  once,  as  he  was  about  to  leave  Utah, — "  Why 
is  this  thus  ?"  [Laughter.]  I  suppose  the  answer  of  the 
chairman  would  be  that,  the  subject  he  has  given  me  is  so 
very  excellent  in  itself,  and  that  its  intrinsic  beauty  and 
purity  are  such,  that  it  requires  no  ornamentation  or  em 
bellishment,  and  therefore  may  be  entrusted  to  the  most 
ordinary  speaker. 

The  subject  that  is  given  me  reminds  me  of  the  story 
of  a  country  horse  jockey  who  was  trying  to  sell  a  span  of 
horses  (one  black  and  one  bay)  to  a  wealthy  city  cus 
tomer,  who  spent  his  whole  time  in  enlarging  upon  the 
excellent  qualities  of  the  bay,  while  the  purchaser  thought 
that  the  black  horse  was  altogether  the  better  of  the  two ; 
and  he  said  to  the  jockey  :  "  Why  is  it  that  you  are  talking 
all  the  time  about  this  bay  horse,  when  the  black  horse 


OF  THE  EX-OFFICERS'  UNION.  75 

seems  to  me  to  be  the  better  ?"  "  Ah,"  said  the  jockey, 
"  the  other  horse  will  speak  for  himself."  So  it  is  with 
woman. 

The  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  the  sentiment  which  I 
would  advance  with  respect  to  this  subject  is  simply  this: 
that  woman  is  the  highest,  the  noblest,  the  holiest  blessing 
that  a  kind  Providence  has  ever  vouchsafed  to  man.  Some 
musty,  fusty,  crusty  old  bachelor  might  be  disposed  to  take 
issue  with  me  as  to  this,  and  to  say  that  Eve  was  the  first 
to  introduce  sin  into  the  world.  (A  laugh.)  Now,  I  have 
a  great  respect  for  the  general  opinions  of  mankind,  yet  I 
doubt  if  old  Mother  Eve  has  not  been  more  sinned  against 
than  sinning.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  Book  says  that  she 
was  herself  first  beguiled  by  the  serpent,  and  of  course  he 
belonged  to  the  masculine  race.  (Laughter.)  I  think  the 
Bible  also  teaches  us  that  when  Eve  sinned,  it  was  for  the 
benefit  of  her  lord,  Adam,  and  that  she  desired  to  elevate ' 
him  to  the  dignity  of  a  God,  where  he  would  know  good 
from  evil.  But  if  you  should  see,  as  I  have,  the  last  and 
crowning  work  from  the  chisel  of  Hiram  Powers,  in  his 
study  at  Florence,  the  magnificent  statue  of  Eve,  represent 
ing  her  at  the  moment  when  she  says  to  the  Lord,  "  The 
serpent  be'guiled  me,  and  I  did  eat,"  and  should  notice  the 
expression  of  sweet  penitence  and  humility  that  he  has  so 
successfully  infused  into  the  marble,  I  am  sure  you  would 
be  disposed  to  pardon  Eve,  or  that  any  resentment  you 
might  feel  would  be  displaced  by  sympathy  and  pity.  But 
if  Eve  sinned,  I  think  the  debt  was  more  than  paid  when 
another  woman  gave  us  the  Saviour,  whereby  Heaven  and 
eternal  happiness  were  opened  to  us. 

"Woman's  influence  is  always  on  the  right  side  ;  and  she 
is  the  conservative  force  of  humanity.  This  is  acknowledged 
everywhere.  What  woman  on  earth  has  been  more  honored 
than  the  sovereign  of  the  distingushed  Member  of  Parlia 
ment  who  has  addressed  us  to-night,  [applause] — the  model 


FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 


mother,  the  devoted  wife,  the  consistent  Christian,  and  the 
exemplary  Queen  of  England  ?  [Applause.]  Only  a  few 
months  ago  I  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  the  Eoyal  Chapel 
at  Windsor  Castle.  Among  the  tombs  of  the  kings  that 
are  buried  there,  I  saw  the  memorial  that  was  designed 
and  erected  by  that  Queen,  and  which,  while  it  illustrated 
the  virtues  of  her  deceased  royal  husband,  seemed  also  to 
me,  to  reveal  those  traits  of  character  that  to  her  seemed 
worthy  of  commendation.  It  was  a  bas-relief,  representing 
t  four  scenes,  one  where  he  was  clothing  the  naked,  another 
where  he  was  feeding  the  hungry,  another  where  he  was 
visiting  the  sick,  and  another  where  he  was  administering 
consolation  to  the  afflicted. 

And  going  across  the  channel,  while  perhaps  there  is  but 
little  sympathy  felt  for  Louis  Napoleon,  how  different  is  the 
feeling  everywhere  with  regard  to  the  devoted  Empress 
Eugenie,  who  in  her  misfortune  has  shown  herself  possessed 
of  a  true  womanly  heart,  and  has  commanded  the  cordial 
sympathy  of  all  true  men  and  women  everywhere.  [Ap 
plause.] 

I  do  not  refer  to  these  instances  because  I  would  dis 
parage  my  own  country  women,  for  I  tell  you,  what  I  be 
lieve  every  unprejudiced  American  will  endorse,  that 
nowhere  on  the  continent  of  Europe  will  you  find  women 
who,  in  point  of  real  taste,  beauty  of  form,  elegance,  and  in 
the  qualities  that  adorn  and  elevate  the  female  sex,  are 
superior  to  our  own  country  women.  [Applause.] 

Woman  is  the  solace  and  comfort  of  man.     She  supports 
tottering  footsteps  of  infancy,  administers  comfort    to 
e  middle.  aged,  she  directs  and  upholds  our  children  in 
the  paths  of  righteousness,  of  peace  and  of  honor. 

see   around   me   to-night,    the   representatives   of  the 

Ith,  the  culture,  the  intelligence  and  the  enterprise  of 

great  commercial  metropolis  ;  and  if  I  should  put  the 

stion  to  each  of  you-to  whom,  more  than  to  any  other 


OF  THE   EX-OFFICEKS'    UNION.  77 

person,  do  you  feel  indebted  for  the  high  positions  and 
privileges  you  hold  and  enjoy  ?  I  believe  the  unanimous 
response  would  be  that  you  owed  all  to  the  influence,  and 
the  teachings  that  you  received  from  your  sainted  mother. 
[Applause.]  Am  I  not  right  ?  [Cries  of  yes  !  yes  !  ]  If 
I  am,  then  let  us  cherish  this  great  blessing.  And  if  there 
are  any  bachelors  here  I  would  advise  them  to  go,  as  soon 
as  they  can  make  the  necessary  arrangements,  and  rnarry 
the  girls  that  they  have  loved  so  long  and  so  well. 
[Laughter  and  continued  applause.] 

The  company  here  rose  from  the  table,  and  shortly  after 
separated. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LIBRARY    SCHOOL  LIBRAE* 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

MAR  1  3  1964 

WARS    1966 

FEB  2  7  1968 

LD  21-50m-4.'63                                 .   .  General  Library 
(D6471slO)476                                University  of  California 
Berkeley 

